1,300 H1N1 cases seen

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) chief Steve Shu-sung Kuo said yesterday that schools will become a major area to contain new outbreaks after students return for the new term in September.

Kuo said the CDC will make a proposal to the Ministry of Education (MOE) to suspend all schools

According to a CDC computer simulation, every week, 36,000 cases are reported of people with influenza-like symptoms. Of that figure, 1,500 cases have been diagnosed with regular flu, while 80 to 90 percent are of the new strain.

In other words, the number of infections caused by A(H1N1) in local communities can possibly reach 1,300 new cases a week.

Kuo said that the agency's concern is predicated on the already more widespread transmission of the new flu and the effect this pattern would have later on in the year when schools recommence for the fall semester.

The MOE, however, has a different take. Wang Jun-chuan, a spokesman for the MOE said the measure by which officials decide whether or not to shut down schools will have to be revised due to the extent of the impact from the epidemic.

But the decision will depend on the transmission and death rates of the virus as well as the classification of the new flu, said Wang.

The Cabinet-level Central Epidemics Command Center (CECC) is scheduled to hold a coordinating meeting today to determine whether to classify the new flu into the category of serious contagious diseases.

Meanwhile, medical officials reported the vital signs of the country's first domestic acute case's patient of A(H1N1) flu have steadily improved from earlier critical condition.

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