Cambodian Health Minister Mum Bun Heng said on Tuesday that the Cambodia's flu A /H1N1 cases have increased to 31 after five people were confirmed positive of the flu in the country on Aug. 31.

"The five people are the latest cases in the country and they all are Khmer," Bun Heng told reporters at a ceremony of receiving a new thermal scanner from Singapore.

"They all are being treated by our doctors," Mum said, adding that "so far nobody died of the flu in the kingdom."

"We have strengthened our existing system to track the suspected people of the flu," he said. The new thermal scanner will be equipped at Phnom Penh International Airport and the old one at the airport will be transferred to install at the Poipet Checkpoint bordering on Thailand.

"We decided to install there because many tourists and travelers are crossing the land border everyday from Thailand into Cambodia. We have to follow them," he noted. "So far, we have had 14 Khmer infecting with the flu," he said, adding that the new thermal scanner is worth over US$10,000 and it is a charitable donation from Singaporean government.

Tan Yee Woan, Singaporean ambassador to Cambodia, said that "the globalization push people to travel a lot and they are facing with infecting the flu and we need to prevent it."

Sok Touch, director of communicable control department of Health Ministry, also expressed his concern, saying that "the second wave of infecting the flu is making us concern about the trend of spread. We have to take measures for the next season."

(Xinhua News Agency September 1, 2009)