T

he Health Ministry will not activate thermal scanners at international airports even though an Indonesian has been confirmed as having been infected with a new bird flu strain in Hong Kong.

'€œWe'€™ve decided not to activate the thermal scanners just yet, but we'€™ll definitely follow the progress of the case,'€ the ministry'€™s director general for disease control and environmental health Tjandra Yoga Aditama said on Wednesday.

He added that the World Health Organization (WHO) had not yet recommended the activation of thermal scanners either.

Hong Kong confirmed on Tuesday the first case of the H7N9, with Tri Mawarti, 36, an Indonesian migrant worker as the victim, making it the first case outside mainland China and Taiwan.

Tri is currently being treated at Queen Mary Hospital, after being moved from Tuen Mun Hospital on Nov. 30. She is reportedly in a critical condition. According to the BBC, Tri had a history of buying, slaughtering and consuming chicken in Shenzen in mainland China before being infected with the virus.

The Indonesian Consulate General (KJRI) in Hong Kong said it would work together with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department in Hong Kong to disseminate information on avian influenza to all Indonesian citizens in Hong Kong, including on preventive measures against the disease. '€œKJRI Hong Kong will continue to monitor the development of the case and will seek all the support the patient needs, including bringing her family to Hong Kong,'€ said the consulate general in an official release.

'€œAll of the patient'€™s friends have been examined and so far we haven'€™t found another Indonesian in Hong Kong infected by the virus,'€ Tjandra told reporters.

In the meantime, he said, the ministry had asked health agencies to be prepared and be alert should they find flu cases in the area, as well as the Agriculture Ministry'€™s animal husbandry directorate general.

 '€œWe have also prepared our laboratory to examine the virus should it reach the country,'€ he said.

Hong Kong is now on public health alert and has suspended the import of live chickens from some areas of the mainland.

Human infections from the H7N9 strain of bird flu first emerged in Shanghai in March this year and within weeks more than 100 cases were confirmed, according to the WHO.

As of Nov. 6, the WHO said it had recorded a total of 139 laboratory-confirmed human cases of the H7N9 virus, including 45 deaths. One case was confirmed in Taiwan.

A study by the British Medical Journal published in August found evidence that H7N9 might have spread between humans, when a father and daughter who lived in the same household in eastern China, both died from the virus.

There was no definitive test to prove that the virus had spread between humans, but they said the discovery of a matching virus, in addition to the elimination of other ways the virus might have spread, was convincing evidence.