Countries in Asia and Pacific region are facing increasing threat from A/H1N1 influenza on Friday as Malaysia reported its first case and New Zealand added two more.

Malaysian Health Ministry's Director General Mohd Ismail Merican Friday issued a statement to confirm the first influenza A/H1N1 case in the country. The case involves a student who had just returned from the United States.

Malaysian Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai, who was on transit in London en route to Geneva, Switzerland, to attend the World Health Organization (WHO) General Assembly, also confirmed the case, according to Malaysia's national news agency Bernama.

Ismail Merican, said the young man was hospitalized on Thursday for fever, sore throat and body aches.

Tests confirmed that he was infected with the A/H1N1 virus and is receiving anti-viral treatment, but in stable condition, Ismail said.

The ministry had contacted members of his family but they have not been placed under quarantine, he added.

On Friday, the number of confirmed A/H1N1 cases in New Zealand rose by two, the Health Ministry said on Friday.

Laboratory tests confirmed two cases, previously classed as probable, were Influenza A/H1N1, bringing New Zealand's total number of confirmed cases to nine, the Health Ministry said.

The two cases included an Auckland college student who had returned from Mexico and another passenger from the same flight.

The confirmation of the two brings the total number of probable cases down to 10. All the people with confirmed cases, including the two on Friday, and probable cases had been treated and had fully recovered, the ministry said.

Forty others were classed as having a suspected case of the flu.

In Thailand, a hospital in the country's northern province of Chiang Mai has quarantined a nine-year-old boy, who has a high fever after returning from Japan, while sending his sample to test for the A/H1N1 flu, Chiang Mai Public Health Director Dr. Wattana Kanchanakamol said on Friday.

The boy has been quarantined since May 13, The Nation newspaper's website reported. He traveled to Japan with his mother and brother.

All of them had fever after returning from Japan and earlier were closely watched for seven days, however his mother and brother recovered and were allowed to return home, Dr. Wattana said.

Separately, director of San Sai Hospital in San Sai district of Chiang Mai, Worawut Phowatcharakul said a woman, who has been quarantined in the hospital, is suffering higher fever.

No one, even her family members, is allowed to visit her, the doctor said, and refused to reveal her name.

Meanwhile, Dr. Wattana said his office has surveyed and found that over 100 students in Chiang Mai had traveled abroad during the recent summer break.

(Xinhua News Agency May 16, 2009)