Japanese tourists test negative for swine flu

The Phnom Penh Post
http://www.phnompenhpost.com

Written by Vong Sokheng
Thursday, 28 May 2009

TWO JAPANESE tourists who landed at Siem Reap International Airport on Sunday with high fevers tested negative for influenza A(H1N1), commonly known as swine flu, a health official said Wednesday.

"The results came out today and they were negative," said Ly Sovann, deputy director of the Health Ministry's Communicable Diseases and Control Department. "So far there are no people with swine flu in Cambodia."

The tourists - a married couple who had temperature readings of 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit) when their flight from Ho Chi Minh City landed - were taken Sunday night to Siem Reap Provincial Hospital and released on Monday, Iem Pon, the hospital's deputy director, told the Post on Monday.

He said the husband had a fever before travelling to Vietnam, where he underwent five days of medical treatment. During that time, he said, the wife "got diarrhoea because she ate the wrong food".

"When she got diarrhoea, this likely caused her temperature to rise," he said. "But there is no sign of the flu because there is no cough."

No reported cases
Health officials announced on Sunday that three Cambodian-Americans believed to have been exposed to AH1N1 while flying from the US also tested negative for the virus.

As of Wednesday, Cambodia has no reported cases of the virus, a fact for which health officials have credited, among other things, increased monitoring at points of entry.