Former public health minister Sudarat Keyuraphan is being treated for typeA (H1N1) influenza at Bangkok's Bamrungrad Hospital since Wednesday.

"Her condition has improved," the hospital's Medical Director Chamaree Chuapetcharasopon said at a press conference yesterday. She added that Sudarat was being given tamiflu and would have to stay at the hospital for at least five days.

Earlier, Sudarat had come to the hospital with flulike symptoms, but because she showed satisfactory signs of improvement, she was allowed to go home.

However, lab results later showed that she had caught the typeA (H1N1) virus and had to be hospitalised. As of yesterday, Sudarat had no fever and had a slight cough.

Asked if the minister was coughing up blood, Chamaree said: "Yes, but only a little."

When speaking to the media, Sudarat said she had, in fact, taken all the precautions to protect herself from the disease.

"Despite washing my hands regularly, I've still come down with the typeA (H1N1) flu," she said.

Sudarat said she had visited people in Bangkok's Chatuchak and Lat Phrao areas over the past weekend, and realised that many had flulike symptoms.

Asked if she had any advice for the incumbent administration, Sudarat said: "The control of the disease is still not good enough. The government has not yet contained the disease."

Sudarat said the government should have made the flu outbreak part of its national agenda.

"The government should set up zones so people know which areas have the highest number of swineflu patients. The alert level will remind people of how careful they should be in each area," she advised.

The former minister's husband, children and relatives were in her hospital room, which had two air purifiers running. She had also been visited by a number of politicians, government officials and businessmen.

Meanwhile, Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai said the virus was mainly spreading in densely populated areas. Currently, about 980,000 health volunteers have been mobilised across the country to help control the outbreak.

THE NATION / ASIA NEWS NETWORK