Ministry: No need to don face masks

Star: PETALING JAYA: There is no need for the public to don face masks as a precautionary measure against the influenza A (H1N1) virus, said the Health Ministry Medical Practice Division director Dr Nooraini Baba.
She said the ministry had not issued a directive for the public and health practitioners to do so.
“We do not want to cause panic to the population,” she said at a press conference after launching the Tropicana Medical Centre’s GP Plus programme in Kota Damansara yesterday.
Dr Nooraini said the ministry had placed a “crawl” — a moving line of text at the bottom of the television screen — to ask passengers who had been on the same flight from the United States as the student who had contracted the virus to come in voluntarily.
“We’re trying to contact them and we are looking into whether they should be quarantined.”
She added the ministry was also investigating how the second patient had travelled to Penang.
“She landed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and we are investigating whether she went to Penang by plane, car or bus,” she said.
Dr Nooraini stressed the ministry had the expertise in tackling this virus as it had experience from handling the SARS outbreak previously.