Impact of Swine Flu in Thailand

Suvarnabhumi airport on alert for visitors from France, Germany, UK and US
By Deutsche Presse Agentur

Reference : The Nation http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/04/27/national/national_30101410.php

Suvarnabhumi Airport will tighten its checks on visitors from France, Tokyo, Frankfurt, London, Chicago, Los Angeles and Texas in an attempt to prevent spread of swine flu in Thailand.

Serirat Prasutanond, general manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport said the airport has not yet found any passengers which have flu symptoms of the swine flu.

He said the visitors to the airport from the said areas were estimated to be about 2,000 to 3,000 per day.

The Thai government on Monday installed thermal scanners at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport as a preventive measure against the spread of swine flu to the kingdom.

The infra-red cameras, used to detect unusual body heat, were one of several measures agreed to by health authorities as a means of preventing the spread of swine flu in the South-East Asian country, where the tourism industry was hard hit by the outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003 and bird flu in 2004-05.

"At present, we have not found any cases of swine flu," Thai Health Minister Vithaya Keowparadis told a press conference.

The Health Ministry has launched an education campaign on swine flu, which has killed at least 20 people in Mexico.

Thailand has a thriving swine livestock industry catering to the domestic market and has begun pork exports.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the cabinet will meet Tuesday to discuss the need for other measures, such as travel warnings to Mexico and the US.