By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Health officials say flu viruses weaken as temperatures rise but advised people to be careful about personal hygiene.
A 62-year-old woman was confirmed Thursday to have contracted H1N1 influenza A, but was discharged from a hospital the same day, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Management said.
She is the third confirmed patient here, but health authorities say Korea may be safe from the deadly disease that swept the United States, Mexico and other countries. The government is strengthening health checks on people arriving from Mexico or the U.S. and said it will keep a close eye on any possible changes in the virus.
According to the KCDC, the third patient returned from a six-month trip to the U.S. on April 25, on the same plane as the first patient. The center said it is not sure whether she got the virus from the first confirmed patient or contracted it in the U.S.
She was told to stay at home and isolate herself on April 29, and then stayed at a military hospital from May 2. Doctors said she showed no signs of a high fever or other symptoms of the influenza and was discharged from hospital Thursday morning.
Some health experts claim that the disease isn't as powerful as it is in the Western part of the world. There have been no new suspected patients for the past four days and the number of people reporting to public health centers for testing is decreasing.
KCDC official Jeon Byeong-yul said it is likely that there are no more cases.
But he also showed prudence. ``Influenza viruses get stronger when the climate gets chilly. I don't think that having no new patients means the virus has disappeared from Korea ― there are chances that it may survive and moreover, change into a different form causing different symptoms,'' he said. ``We will have to wait till summer's over.''
``It seems like we have just passed a critical point but I still advise people to be careful about their personal hygiene,'' Jeon said.
Passengers on aircraft from 22 other countries reported with a prevalence of cases to the World Health Organization will undergo tests if anyone reports a high fever to the flight attendant.
Quarantine officials and a doctor will board planes and hospitalize ``suspected sufferers'' before they check into the airport, Jeon said.
Since the government recommended families of Korean workers in Mexico to return to Korea for a while, there are still chances of infected people coming here, he added.
Authorities are also keen on developing a vaccine for the virus, after a Canadian research team decoded the DNA structure of the virus.