A total of 117 workers of a garment factory in Vietnam have been confirmed to have contracted flu virus H1N1, local media reported Monday. Of the 117 workers of Vinatex Kien Giang factory in Kien Giang Province, 34 have been hospitalized, according to the Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute, Xinhua reported.
The factory, which houses nearly 1,000 workers, has been asked to take preventive measures to prevent further spread of the flu, such as encouraging its employees to wear facial masks and disinfect workshops, canteens and water closets. Some strains of H1N1 are endemic in humans and cause a small fraction of all seasonal flu. In June 2009, the World Health Organization declared the new strain of swine-origin H1N1 as a pandemic which caused about 17,000 deaths by the start of 2010, but it was soon declared over and returned to typical seasonal patterns.
