The swine flu / pig flu / H1N1 in Indonesia is worrying. The victims are growing in speedier pace. Xin Hua reports:
Indonesia recorded 12 new A/H1N1 cases, putting the total cases to 64, the Indonesian Health Ministry said in a statement here Sunday.

Director General of disease control and environmental health Prof. Dr. Tjandra Yoga Aditama said in the statement that the new patients were aged from 8 to 40 years, and five of them had the history of travel to overseas, such as Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey, Japan and New Zealand.

Two of the 12 persons were foreigners and the rest were Indonesian citizens, he said. Seven of them were males and the rest were females, and eight persons were being treated in the Sulianti Saroso Hospital and two in the Gatot Subroto Hospital in Jakarta, one in the Sanglah Hospital in Bali and another in the Hassan Sadikin Hospital in Bandung of West Java, said Aditama.

So far, of the total 64 cases, 43 of them were male and 21 were female, he said.

Some 500000 New Yorkers might have been infected with A/H1N1 flu virus, New York Post reported Saturday citing federal official sources.

Guatemala’s Health Minister confirmed the country’s first death from the H1N1 flu virus on Thursday, as the number of cases in the country rose to 254, via Reuters

Indonesia confirms first two A/H1N1 flu cases
Officials confirmed Wednesday the country’s first cases of the H1N1 flu after an Indonesian and a British tourist tested positive for the virus.

Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari identified an Indonesian pilot who recently flew to Australia and Hong Kong, and a 22-year-old British tourist who has lived in Australia.

Supari said the female tourist, who is in an isolation ward at Bali’s Sanglah Public Hospital, travelled to Bali last week even though she fell ill before leaving Australia.

Her condition worsened at the weekend, prompting her to seek medical help.

A 37-year-old Indonesian pilot was being treated in a Jakarta hospital.

Confirmed cases of swine flu increased across the Asia-Pacific region at the weekend, with China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, South Korea and Australia reporting new infections, reports WSJ.

Malaysia confirms second case of swine flu
Malaysia confirmed its second case of swine flu Saturday, a woman who recently returned from the United States.
Ramlee Rahmat, the Health Ministry deputy director-general, said the woman had returned to Malaysia from the United States on Wednesday and was hospitalized Friday in northern Penang state.

Tests confirmed early Saturday that she was infected with the H1N1 virus, but he said there were no fears that the disease was spreading. The woman was a friend of a 21-year-old man who was also infected with the virus and they were both on the same flight, he said.

“They happened to be together. That’s how they got it,” he told the Associated Press. “Both of them are in stable condition. The situation is under control.”

WHO raised its pandemic alert to 5 on a 6-level scale
The number of confirmed cases of the new H1N1 flu has climbed to 8,451, including 72 deaths, the World Health Organization said on Saturday.

The number of countries reporting confirmed cases of H1N1, commonly known as swine flu, has risen to 36 with Ecuador and Peru confirming their first cases, the WHO said.

The vast majority of cases have been in Mexico and the United States.

The spread of the disease has led the WHO to declare a pandemic is imminent. On April 29 it raised its pandemic alert to 5 on a 6-level scale.
Countries hit or start getting affected by swine flu: India and Turkey, Japan, Hongkong, Malaysia and Indonesia

And WHO (world health organization) says it’s now in over 33 countries:
Swine flu has reached 33 countries, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, and there have been deaths in four nations: Mexico, the United States, Canada and Costa Rica. The agency, based in Geneva, is under pressure to change how it issues pandemic alerts, which go up as a new virus spreads even if it is relatively mild.