Saturday May 2, 2009
Swine flu tag now called A(H1N1)
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will now refer to the swine flu as influenza A(H1N1) in line with a move by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“It was earlier called swine flu because it was believed to have originated from pig farms in Mexico,” said Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai in explaining the name change.
“For the name change, we are just abiding by WHO’s recommendation,” he told the press after recording a public service announcement on preventive measures for the flu outbreak at the Red FM studio yesterday.
The exact origin of the virus is still unknown.
Foreign wires had earlier reported that WHO was re-examining the name of the virus after complaints that the term was causing an unjustified clampdown on the pork trade.
Foreign health experts had said the virus cannot be transmitted by eating pork despite its original name of “swine flu,” believed to be a new strain which combined bird, swine and common human influenza.
The WHO’s phase five alert status signalled widespread person-to-person transmission and that a pandemic was imminent.
Liow, however, said that Malaysia was still clear from the infection as of yesterday.
He urged Malaysians and visitors to continue to be on high alert and to take precautionary measures.
Two mass thermal scanners from the Defence Ministry have been installed at the KL International Airport and one at the low-cost carrier terminal (LCCT) to speed up the screening process for international arrivals.
Liow said that only travellers from the countries which have confirmed cases were being screened.
On Thursday, 829 passengers from 16 international flights were screened.
Bernama reports that the Immigration and marine departments at airports, border check points and ports were checking visitors’ country of origins and disembarkation points.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said that a second examination would also be carried out on nationals using the auto gate at international airports.
In Petaling Jaya, the Health Ministry’s national and state-level operation centres would continue to monitor the situation in the country, its director-general Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican said.
Dr Ismail said in a statement that details would be disseminated to the public, embassies, media and health practitioners about the disease through the operation centres.
The information could also be obtained from the media and the ministry’s website http://moh.gov.my.
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