THAIS CAN TRAVEL TO FLU-AFFECTED COUNTRIES

By D. Arul Rajoo

BANGKOK, April 28 (Bernama) -- Thailand has no immediate plans to ban its
citizens from travelling to countries affected by the swine flu, but would step
up screening for travellers coming from those areas, Prime Minister Abhisit
Vejjajiva said Tuesday.

He said the government would provide more information on the situation to
the Thai people, including getting updates from the World Health Organisation
(WHO), instead of issuing a travel warning.

"We have an alert system to detect the disease, including screening people
coming from the disease areas," he told reporters after the weekly Cabinet
meeting.

Authorities have installed thermal scanners to screen passengers at three
major airports -- Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi, Phuket and Chiang Mai -- with focus on
about 2,000 to 3,000 travellers coming daily from Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo,
Frankfurt, London, Chicago and Texas.

Similar thermal scanners were used during the 2003 severe acute respiratory
syndrome (SARS) epidemic.

Abhisit said that Deputy Prime Minister Sanan Kachornprasart would chair a
special committee to supervise swine flu prevention measures.

WHO has confirmed human cases of swine flu in Mexico, the United States,
Canada and Spain, with death toll over 100 in Mexico.

Abhisit said he was confident that the country's lucrative tourism sector,
badly hit by the recent political crisis and street demonstrations, would not
suffer because of the swine flu.

"We have the prevention measures in place and we don't have such cases now,"
he added.

Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai said Thailand had sufficient
stockpile of Tamiflu anti-virals for at least 300,000 patient.

The Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) has announced there is also
GPO-A-Flu medicine to treat patients, with the ministry having about three
millions tablets and the agency, another 170,000 tablets.
-- BERNAMA