Malaysia confirmed its first case of swine flu yesterday, Health Ministry Director General Ismail Merican said.
“I can confirm [that it] is the first case in Malaysia,” he said.
“The patient is a 21-year-old male student who had just returned from the United States on May 13, 2009 and who was down with fever, sore throat and body aches on May 14,” the health ministry said.
“This is the first A(H1N1) flu case found in Malaysia,” the ministry said.
It said the man went into the Sungai Buloh quarantine facility in Selangor state on the same evening and is now in a stable condition.
It urged all passengers who traveled on the Malaysian airlines flight MH091 from Newark, New Jersey, to Kuala Lumpur that landed at 7.15am on Wednesday to contact the ministry for further instructions.
The ministry said it had so far received 11 flu-like cases for investigation with all the patients warded and isolated for monitoring.
“All these cases showed symptoms of flu and had a history of visiting countries infected with the outbreak [but] all their clinical samples had been sent to institute for medical research for lab tests and tested negative,” it said.
Meanwhile, the WHO said the number of confirmed swine flu cases has reached 7,520, rising more than 1,000 in 24 hours. Sixty-five people have died from the virus.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), however, said the number of global cases had topped 7,700 worldwide.
The US reported 4,298 cases, including probable cases, the ECDC said.
In Panama the number of cases rose to 39. Colombia had 10, Brazil and Costa Rica each had eight cases, El Salvador had four, while Cuba had three cases, it said.
New Zealand raised the number of reported cases to nine.
In Europe there were 12 new confirmed cases compared to Thursday, raising the number of confirmed cases to 234.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was