KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 – Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai(pic) has confirmed there is no report of the H7N9 flu in the country. Nevertheless, the government was taking precautionary measures to prevent the lesser-known bird flu virus from spreading in the country, he said. Met by Bernama, he said the virus was an isolated case and had only been reported in China.
However, he said the Malaysian Government had increased surveillance and obtained guidelines from the World Health Organisation (WHO), regarding the new strain of avian influenza.
“We have stepped up alerts at all entry points to block and ensure the monitoring of carriers or any disease from abroad,” he said. He said symptoms of the bird flu was similar to H1N1, whereby patients would experience stomach flu and prolonged fever.
Even so, he said, the H7N9 virus was more dangerous and serious as its mortality rate was 60 per cent higher than H1N1, which only had a 0.4 per cent risk. The minister advised those with symptoms to undergo screening at any hospital or clinic.
On Sunday, Bernama reported that China had recorded two deaths and a case involving H7N9 in that country. The report stated that there were currently no vaccines available to prevent the H7N9 virus.
BERNAMA
