Send them to govt hospitals at once

NST: PUTRAJAYA: Patients with flu-like symptoms who have just returned from countries where there are confirmed influenza A (H1N1) cases should be referred to government hospitals immediately.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican said this was important to stop the spread of the disease which had now infected 23 people, with five new cases confirmed yesterday.
Dr Ismail expressed disappointment after a private clinic, which attended to a 54-year-old man on Monday, had failed to refer the patient to the hospital when he sought treatment for the fever, cough and headache he had developed the day before.
The patient went to University Malaya Medical Centre on Tuesday and was taken in an ambulance to Kuala Lumpur Hospital the same day.
The man had returned from a business trip from Manila on Friday evening on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH705 (seat 32H).
His wife and two children are now quarantined at home.
"We are warning all private clinics and hospitals to refer all their patients who had returned from countries affected by the influenza, and those with symptoms of the flu to the hospital immediately for further tests.
"It is regrettable that they fail to do so as it heightens the risk of local transmissions."
A 23-year-old local university student, who was on a seven-day excursion to Australia with 13 others, also tested positive for the disease.
He had taken the AirAsia X flight D72723 (seat 37J) and arrived at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal on Sunday at 7.15am.
The student showed symptoms five hours after his arrival, but only sought treatment at a private clinic the next day. He is now kept in isolation at Sungai Buloh Hospital in Selangor.
A 22-year-old female Malaysian student from Melbourne who was on the same flight also tested positive for the flu.
The woman who was in seat 48H, has been referred to Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun in Ipoh, Perak.
The duo had shared the same flight with Malaysia's 17th case, who tested positive on Monday and is currently being treated at Sungai Buloh Hospital.
Dr Ismail said the fifth Technical Committee on Influenza A (H1N1) had issued several directives for the Health Ministry to enforce.
They include discouraging the public, especially children below the age of 12, from visiting hospitals unless to seek treatment.
Each patient will also be allowed a maximum of two visitors at any one time. Visiting hours at all public and private hospitals will also be shortened.
Those visiting patients at public and private hospitals will have to undergo screening for fever.