The H1N1 flu virus has been detected in six more people in Indonesia, taking the total number of cases in the country to eight, Health Minister Siti Fadila Supari said Sunday.

"There are six new positive cases. Three of the infected people are Australians and the rest are Indonesians," she said.

The Australians have been identified by the Health Ministry as GC, MT and JA, while the local residents are AG, TP and AM.

"AG and TP had just returned from their holidays in Singapore while AM returned from Australia. They are now under treatment at the Sulianti Saroso Hospital for Infectious Diseases in North Jakarta," Siti said.

All the Australians are receiving medical treatment at the Sanglah General Hospital in Denpasar, Bali. The three Australians were on board the same plane as another H1N1 patient identified as BM, later identified as British tourist Bobbi Masoner.

Masoner, currently residing in Australia, was one of the first two people in Indonesia to be infected by the H1N1 virus. The other was a pilot from Jakarta identified as WA.

Masoner has reportedly recovered from the illness and has since left hospital.

Siti said residents should heighten their awareness of the virus and report to the nearest extraordinary occurrence (KLB) command post if they suspect they or a family member may be infected with the disease.

"Residents may also call 021-4257125, send a fax to 021-42877588 or send an email to poskoklbp2pl@yahoo.com," she said.

Director General of Disease Control and Environmental Health at the health ministry, Tjandra Yoga Aditama, said in a press release that all the patients were in good condition and receiving top care.

"The global fatality rate is 0.4 percent, which means that 99.6 percent of infected individuals can be properly treated and survive," he said.

"Between 92 and 95 percent of the patients have also recovered without any treatment in hospital. Several countries have also decided that *stable' H1N1 patients do not need to go to the hospital."

Tjandra said on a global scale, there had been nearly 60,000 reported cases, with 263 fatalities.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised its warning level from 5 to 6, officially bringing the outbreak of the disease to pandemic level. The previous global flu pandemic level was issued 41 years ago, when the Hong Kong flu of 1968 killed around 1 million people.

The first announcement of the flu outbreak was documented in Mexico on April 13, and since then there have been more than 1,000 cases of swine flu in humans detected there.

The majority of fatalities in Mexico have occurred in young adults, a characteristic of the flu. (hdt)

H1N1 cases in neighboring countries

Country----------- Cases

Australia---------- 3,280

Brunei Darussalam-- 11

Japan-------------- 1,047

Malaysia----------- 68

The Philippines---- 445

Singapore---------- 315

Thailand----------- 774

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