Students fall victim to new outbreak as semester starts
- Source: Global Times
- [02:25 September 07 2009]
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A patient infected with Influenza A/H1N1 virus receives medical treatment at Xinjiang Infectious Disease Hospital in Urumqi, capital city of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Sept. 5, 2009.(Xinhua Photo)
With the start of the new semester and the upcoming cold weather, school students are becoming the victims of a nationwide outbreak of A(H1N1) influenza, which was described as "unavoidable" or "reaching its peak" by epidemic experts.
At least 67 students from 5 universities were confirmed infected at a university complex in Langfang, Hebei Province, in a three-day period ended Sunday noon, adding to the number of regions suffering from a massive outbreak of cases to 10. Henan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Shandong, Hunan and Jiangsu provinces, and the Guangxi, Ningxia and Xinjiang regions are the other areas.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 434 more cases of A (H1N1) flu from Wednesday to Friday, most of which were community-cluster cases occurring in primary, high schools and universities.
Hong Kong has reported two more A(H1N1) flu related deaths on Sunday, bringing the city's total to nine.
Zeng Guang, chief scientist on epidemics at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, indicated that the outbreak is unavoidable as schools begin and the temperature is cooling.
"Although there is no variation of the virus, it spreads fast, even if developing toward the peak of the outburst," said Zeng, adding that the new development is that many cases broke out in universities, as it had always broken out in elementary or middle schools.
Zeng also warned that the virus might spread to factories, companies, armies and other crowded places.
Li Xingwang, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases at Ditan Hospital, disagreed, "It's normal for the flu to surge from the fall all through the winter, and we shouldn't overreact to these cases."
On August 14, the Ministry of Education and MOH jointly issued a statement on the spread of A(H1N1) flu at the beginning of the fall semester, demanding that high schools and secondary vocational schools in severely infected areas postpone starting the new semester.
In fact, schools all over the country, especially those reported to have infected students, have taken counter-measures, such as ceasing military training and taking temperatures of all students and reporting where they have been during the summer break.
