Malaysia: Ministry cautions about lack of no new cases of H1N1

KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 — When there are no new cases of influenza A (H1N1) being reported, the people generally would take it as good news but the Malaysian health authorities remain cautious in making such conclusion as the virus has spread worldwide at an unprecedented speed.

For the first time Monday, Malaysia did not report any new cases of influenza A (H1N1) since the virus was first detected in the country on May 15.

The Health Ministry has been battling to contain the spread of the disease to the extent of even elevating its action plan from containment to mitigation.

For the past few days, there was a decrease in the number of cases being reported in the country and a major achievement Monday was that no cases were reported for the past 24 hours.

"The drop in the number of the cases is not really an indication that the spread is going to be over. We still have to wait," Director-General of Health Dr. Ismail Merican told Bernama when contacted here.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has in fact stopped counting new cases of H1N1 flu, due to the fact that the virus has spread at an “unprecedented speed”.

The WHO representative for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, Dr. Han Theru said this was due to the fact that the number was simply too big and did not reflect the actual situation of the spread.

"Counting numbers is not really accurate. The numbers did not reflect the actual situation and that was why we asked many countries to shift from containment to the mitigation stage," he said when contacted.

Dr. Han said the influenza A (H1N1) virus was still evolving and whether the trend was increasing or decreasing, nobody could know for sure and what they could do was to continue to monitor the situation.

However, the world health body said all countries must continue to closely monitor “unusual events” like clusters of severe virus infections or unusual patterns of the serious cases.

In terms of the vaccine development, the manufacturer has said an H1N1 flu vaccine could only be ready in October.

The pandemic was first detected in Mexico earlier this year before moving to the United States, Europe and other nations in the northern hemisphere. The virus is now more prevalent in the southern hemisphere, where it is now the winter season.

Flu is typically more active and prevalent during the fall and winter.

WHO had raised the worldwide pandemic alert level on June 11 to phase 6, the highest designation. The most recent WHO figures, from early July, listed 170 flu fatalities in the United States, 119 in Mexico and 60 in Argentina.

However, the figures had risen since then and WHO stopped listing national totals after July 6 because the organization said "the increasing number of cases in many countries with sustained community transmission is making it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for countries to try and confirm them through laboratory testing." (PNA/BERNAMA)

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