Malaysian health authorities on Saturday confirmed the country's second case of swine flu in a student who recently returned from the United States.
The female patient was reportedly a friend of the country's first swine-flu case, a 21-year-old male student, and both had flown back to Malaysia on the same flight Wednesday Malaysia Airlines MH091 from New York (with a brief stop in Stockholm), Health Department deputy director general Ramlee Rahmat said.
The second patient was admitted to hospital Friday in the northern state of Penang, and blood tests confirmed Saturday that she was infected with the H1N1 virus, he said at a press conference.
Ramlee said the pair's two other friends who were on the same flight have been quarantined at home, adding that the woman's family was also under home quarantine.
The country's first victim was at a hospital in the central state of Selangor, more than 400 kilometres from Penang.
Ramlee said the man was given anti-viral drugs and his temperature has since dropped. He said the man's five family members had not shown any systoms of infection.
Despite calls by the government for all 192 passengers on the same flight as the patients to come forward immediately, only 35 have since contacted the ministry, he said.
Malaysia is the second South-East Asian country to confirm swine-flu infections after Thailand.
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