Mainland confirms 8th killer flu case
- Source: The Global Times
- [07:26 May 25 2009]
- Comments
By Wang Anna and Guan Kejiang
A 2-year-old girl from Fujian Province last week became the mainland’s eight confirmed case of A (H1N1), the Ministry of Health said on its website yesterday.
The child arrived in Fuzhou, the Fujian capital, Wednesday, after traveling with her family from the United States via Hong Kong aboard flight KA662. She began showing signs of acute respiratory infection Thursday morning and was taken to the Fuzhou Pulmonary Hospital.
As of yesterday, her body temperature was normal and she was in a stable condition, the ministry said.
Seven members of the girl’s family and the taxi driver who drove them home were also taken to hospital but did not show any flu symptoms.
Health authorities in Fujian tracked down 30 of the 38 airline passengers who had been in contact with the girl. They were isolated and given treatment, but none showed any signs of infection. Eight other passengers had left the mainland.
The ministry also reported yesterday two suspected cases of A (H1N1): a 30-year-old businessman in Shanghai and a 19-year-old male college student in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province.
The businessman arrived at Shanghai Pudong International Airport from Melbourne on flight CA178 Saturday night. Local health authorities isolated 31 people who had been in close contact with him.
The student arrived in Shanghai from New York Friday morning aboard flight MU588 and transited to Wenzhou on flight MU5585 later that day.
Two family members and two medical personnel who had been in close contact with him were isolated and health authorities are trying to trace other passengers on the two flights.
On Friday, the ministry also reported the latest confirmed case of A (H1N1) in Beijing, which took the total to four.
The patient, a 65-year-old Chinese American man who arrived in the capital Thursday from New York, was detected as having a fever at the airport. He was sent to Ditan Hospital and admitted to an isolation ward.
Health authorities said yesterday his temperature was normal and he was in a stable condition.
As well as the four cases reported in the capital, individual cases have also been reported in
Sichuan, Shandong, Guangdong and Fujian.
Hong Kong yesterday reported its seventh confirmed case, the Xinhua News Agency said without giving any further details, while Taiwan reported its sixth case – a 5-year-old girl – late Friday. The school the child attends has been closed for seven days, Xinhua said.
“If the number of confirmed cases spikes, as happened in Japan, we will have to take further measures such as closing schools and entertainment venues, and imposing restrictions on travel,” Zeng Guang, a disease specialist from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Global Times.