A (H1N1): Search for 76 passengers on 2 flights

Star; KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry is still searching for 76 passengers on board on AirAsia AK5358 and MAS MH091 on May 13 who were exposed to two patients infected with the virus.
Health Ministry Deputy Director General Datuk Dr Ramlee Rahmat said that all those passengers must join the others in home quarantine and call 03 88810200/300 immediately.
He said that seven passengers who were yet to be located had been on the MAS flight from Newark, United States while another 69 were on the AirAsia flight from the Low Cost Carrier Terminal in Sepang to Penang.
He urged those who showed any flu symptom to admit themselves into the nearest hospital.
He said that of the 11 suspected cases in Malaysia, so far, only two had tested positive.
He said that there had been no local transmission of the virus, so far, and if the nine current suspected cases did not develop symptoms, they could be declared A (H1N1) free on wednesday as the virus took seven days to incubate.
Dr Ramly said that the World Health Organisation had yet to recommend travel restrictions.
Meanwhile, the man who fainted in an AirAsia Kuala Lumpur-bound flight from Sandakan Sunday was not suspected of having A (H1N1) flu.
Dr Ramlee Rahmat said the man had not visited any countries affected by the flu recently.
The emergency landing in Kuching to allow him to be warded at Sarawak General Hospital was the usual practice airlines, he said.
In Johor Baru, state health department director Dr Mohd Khairi Yaakob said that the female passenger from MH091, who has been warded in Johor from Sunday after developing a fever, had tested negative for the A (H1N1) flu.
He said she was expected to be discharged Monday.
In Kuching, Assistant Public Health Minister Datuk Dr Soon Choon Teck said that two passengers on MH091 from Newark, New Jersey, who were warded at the Sarawak General Hospital after developing fever at the weekend have tested negative.
He said one of the passengers, a woman who was admitted on Saturday, was still in hospital but no longer in the isolation ward.
“She is no longer considered a suspected case of H1N1 and I think she will go home very soon,” he told reporters at the lobby of the Sarawak State Assembly here Monday.
The other passenger was a man in his 20s who was admitted on Sunday.
“As far as we are concerned there are no H1N1 suspected cases in the hospital at the moment,” Dr Soon said.
The two were among nine passengers from the flight who were now in Sarawak.
Dr Soon said the other passengers had been traced and placed under home quarantine.