Students at Prince of Songkla University will have two extra days of holidays on Thursday and Friday after the death of a 19-year-old from H1N1. Exams scheduled for those days are to be postponed while 1500 university dormitory bedrooms are sanitised. Health authorities have three close friends of the deceased under observation. But they have shown no symptoms of the virus. The dead student had a preexisting respiratory condition, a media conference was told this afternoon.. Governor Wichai Praisa-nob added that the vast majority of people who caught the virus survived and there was no need for alarm.


PHUKET HAS recorded its first H1N1 flu fatality with the death of a 19-year-old student from Prince of Songkla University at Vachira Hospital in Phuket City.

There were also rumors today of a second death on the island. Details were to be announced at a Public Health ministry media conference scheduled for 4pm today.

The young man whose death involved H1N1 was from the province of Patthalung and a first year engineering student at PSU. He died at 3pm on Thursday, July 2.

However, the cause of his death was not determined until yesterday.

Thailand has recorded 11 deaths from H1N1 from 2714 cases.

Some local media reports have done little to put the dangers of the virus in context.

Concerns that H1N1, initially known as swine flu, would prove extremely dangerous have been replaced with acceptance that the virus will spread everywhere.

But it is relatively mild, probably even less of a threat to life to most people than seasonal flu.

People with preexisting conditions have been most likely to be among the fatalities.

There have been about 98,000 cases of the virus confirmed, with 440 deaths, in 137 countries and territories.

The World Health Organisation is to issue new guidelines soon for member states on how to monitor the virus, given that it is widespread and counting each case is no longer needed.

The three cases of patients with swine flu who have shown resistance to anti-viral drugs were not unexpected, a senior WHO official says.

All three patients, in Denmark, Hong Kong and Japan, were believed to have made full recoveries.

The organisation would probably recommend that only countries with few or no cases keep tabs on every instance, but otherwise to focus on possible mutations, other changes and severity.

In Thailand, health officials say 110 people are still in hospitals and eight are in severe condition.

Some people may decided not to travel because of the spread of H1N1.

But it is not perceived as a major threat to the tourism industry in Thailand because the home countries of some visitors have larger outbreaks, or outbreaks on a similar scale, to the one here.


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