A

n Islamic school in Banten has been closed for three days while hundreds of students attending pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) in East Java and Lampung are quarantined Wednesday, suspected of having contracted the H1N1 virus.

The Al-Fath Islamic school in Tangerang, Banten, was closed as a preventive measure after an elementary school student suspected of having the virus was hospitalized. The student is now being treated at the Sulianti Saroso Hospital for Infectious Disease in North Jakarta.

"The Al-Fath management closed the school on Monday," Al-Fath spokesman Ubaedillah Maksum said, as quoted by Antara.

There are currently about 900 students, from kindergarten to junior high school, studying at the Al-Fath school.

Hundreds of students at two other pesantren, the Babussalam and the Al Islahiyah schools in Malang regency, were quarantined Wednesday suspected of being infected with the H1N1 influenza virus.

For the last three days, 160 of the 700 students at the Babussalam boarding school have been suffering from fevers and coughs.

"It has hindered our studies at the pesantren," the chaperone from Babussalam, Agus Thoriq Darwis, said.

All the students suspected of having contracting the H1N1 virus are prohibited from leaving the pesantren area.

Forty students from the Al Islahiyah school have also fallen ill with fevers and coughs.

"The students are being treated at the local community health center and the Saiful Anwar General Hospital in Malang city," the pesantren chaperone Imron Hamid said.

In Lampung too, hundreds of students at three pesantren are being treated for flu symptoms and dozens of medical workers have been deployed to the schools.

"We are giving them vitamins and drugs to lower their temperatures," Hernowo, head of Metro City Health Agency said on Wednesday, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

He said the infections started Sunday when several students came down with flu-like symptoms which immediately spread to other students at the schools.

The agency has sent 15 doctors and 30 nurses to Darul Amal, Raudatul Qur'an and Tumahminah schools to treat at least 300 students.

The agency is keeping the affected students in isolation, away from other students. It has sent blood and throat samples to a laboratory and is awaiting the results.

The Health Ministry's director general for disease control and environmental health, Tjandra Yoga Aditama, said that, as of Wednesday, there were 28 new positive H1N1 flu cases in Indonesia, of which 15 were male. This brings the total number to 444 people across the country, spread across seven provinces.

He said Jakarta had the most infections with 13 cases, followed by East Java with five cases, both Yogyakarta and West Java had three cases each, Banten with two cases, and Bali and North Sulawesi had one case each.