Clinical studies have found that obesity raises the risk of contracting influenza A(HIN1), therefore, obese people have been placed in ninth spot on the priority list to receive H1N1 flu vaccines, the director of the Centers for Disease Control said Wednesday. Steve H. S. Kuo said that after discussions among members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices the previous day, the Department of Health (DOH) decided to add obese people to the priority list in the same spot as people over 24 who have heart, liver or kidney diseases. However, it has not yet been clearly determined how obesity should be defined, he added. Lee Ping-ing, spokesman for the Infectious Disease Society of Taiwan, warned the same day that 'excessively thin people' are also vulnerable to the H1N1 virus. The DOH's list, in descending order of priority, is as follows: health care and public health personnel; pregnant women; preschool children aged 1 to 6; people over the age of 6 with major illness or injuries; elementary school students; middle school students; high school students; people between 19 and 24 years old; people over 24 with diabetes, heart, liver, or kidney disease; and healthy adults over 25. DOH Vice Minister Chang Shang-chun urged that people seek medical treatment if they feel unwell, as many H1N1 patients do not develop typical symptoms such as cough, nasal congestion, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, body aches, joint pains, fever, sore throat, headache and fatigue. As of Sept. 8, a total of 5,474 students across the country had been confirmed with A(H1N1), according to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Education. Some 3,138 cases were at elementary schools, 1,304 at senior high schools, 913 at junior high schools, 69 at colleges and universities and 50 at kindergartens, the figures show. 