| 3 more H1N1 infections confirmed | |
Health officials said yesterday three more additional cases of the H1N1, a subtype of influenza A, had been confirmed here. The latest cases include a 41-year-old female English teacher from the United States who was quarantined at an isolation facility along with 65 other foreign teachers on May 23 after a confirmed H1N1 patient was found to have been among them. The English teachers arrived here recently at the invitation of a local language institute and stayed together during a week-long orientation program. A 38-year-old Korean-American instructor who educated those foreign teachers during the orientation was also confirmed to be infected with the disease. He had been advised to report symptoms while staying at home, health officials said. As of yesterday, 22 of the foreign teachers quarantined have contracted the disease. Health officials confirmed another infection case of a 19-year-old Korean student, who returned from New York on Tuesday. After testing positive for the virus upon arrival at airport, he has been hospitalized at a state-run hospital for treatment and observation. As more students who are studying overseas are expected to come back in the coming months of the summer vacation, health officials will launch a campaign informing the disease and precautionary measures against it through the local media in the United States and Canada from next Monday. According to the Foreign Ministry, there are at least 154,600 Korean students in the United States, Canada and Japan where the disease continues to spread widely. And some 6,000 to 6,500 travelers enter the country everyday on the direct flights from the United States. "We are watching the development in the spread of the virus. As some patients were found to have continued their daily activities without noticing their infection, epidemiologists are investigating into possible further infection in the neighboring areas," said Jun Byung-yool, a senior official of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By Lee Ji-yoon
(jylee@heraldm.com)
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