Six-month-old boy becomes youngest patient to be hospitalized with swine flu

A six-month-old boy yesterday became the nation’s youngest patient to be hospitalized with influenza A(H1N1) after testing positive for the flu virus.

The infant was the third person under one year of age to be hospitalized with the A(H1N1) virus since the outbreak began earlier this year, and the youngest of the three, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.

Epidemic prevention authorities reported yesterday that five more patients had been hospitalized with the A(H1N1) virus as the new flu strain continued to spread throughout the country.

The newly hospitalized patients included four males and one female, aged six months to 49, said the CECC, adding that these cases brought the total number of A(H1N1) hospitalized patients to 292 since the outbreak began.

Seventeen of these patients have died, while 239 have recovered and 36 remain in the hospital, the CECC said.

As of yesterday, 330 classes in 209 schools around the country were still suspended because of A(H1N1) infections among students. The number of affected classes accounts for 0.22 percent of the total, the CECC said.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health (DOH) announced yesterday that a total of 2.99 million flu vaccine doses would be available starting on Oct. 1 and another 15 million A(H1N1) influenza vaccine doses would come onto the market sometime in November.

Immunization against the new flu strain is expected to begin late next month, with healthcare workers, pregnant women and children between six months and six years of age chosen as priority recipients.

Centers for Disease Control Director-General Steve Kuo (郭旭崧) yesterday said that National Taiwan University Hospital, Tri-service General Hospital and Taipei Medical University-Wan Fang Hospital have completed the first round of human clinical trials on 300 adults for locally produced swine flu vaccine by Adimmune Corp (國光生技).

The result of the trails will be available in approximately three weeks.

In addition to 10 million doses of vaccine to be supplied by Adimmune, the DOH has purchased another 5 million doses from the Swiss-based pharmaceutical firm Novartis.