Cambodia searches for three US citizens exposed to Swine Flu

Eartth Times
http://www.earthtimes.org

Posted : Fri, 22 May 2009
Author : DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodian health authorities said Friday they were searching for three US citizens who arrived in Phnom Penh Sunday after sharing a flight from the US to South Korea with a person later diagnosed with swine flu. "The Ministry of Health received official communication from the Korean Embassy that three individuals were on the same flight from USA to Korea with a passenger who was later confirmed to have Influenza A (H1N1)," a joint Health Ministry and World Health Organization (WHO) statement said.

"The three individuals subsequently flew on a separate flight to Phnom Penh on Sunday 17 May 2009," the statement said. "At the time of their arrival to Cambodia, the three passengers did not display influenza symptoms."

Sok Touch, director of the Communicable Diseases Control Department at the Ministry of Health, said all three were US citizens and that two, a man and a woman, were believed be in the southern province of Kampot.

"We have no idea where the other person is, but we are working with provincial authorities to find this person and offer testing," he said. "But it is important to note that there are still no cases of H1N1 in Cambodia."

Sok Touch said Cambodia was prepared for an outbreak of the potentially fatal illness, which WHO statistics show has infected 11,034 people worldwide and killed 86.