hafeezanwar
Junior Member
China hunts for possible swine flu carriers
China on Thursday stepped up the search for people who came into contact with the mainland's two confirmed swine flu patients, as Belgium became the latest European nation hit by the virus.
Authorities in the Chinese capital Beijing and eastern Shandong province were looking for plane and train travellers who had come into contact with a 19-year-old student who on Wednesday was confirmed to have the A(H1N1) virus.
China, criticised for its handling of the SARS crisis six years ago, has reacted aggressively to prevent a major outbreak in the world's most populous nation of swine flu, which so far has killed more than 60 in the Americas.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday more than 5,700 cases had been reported in 30 nations -- more than half of them, including three fatalities, in the United States.
More than 2,000 other cases are in Mexico, the origin of the outbreak where the WHO has confirmed 56 fatalities and national authorities reported a further four.
More than 350 people have been infected and one person has died in Canada, where the 19-year-old Chinese man, identified only by his surname Lu, had been before arriving in Beijing last week.
He apparently felt ill on Sunday, two days after landing in China, but nevertheless boarded a train on Monday for Shandong province with a fever, sore throat and a headache.
The provincial health department was still looking for more than 20 people who travelled in the same train carriage with Lu, as well as any passengers from his Air Canada flight to Beijing.
Lu became the second confirmed flu sufferer on the mainland after a 30-year-old man in the southwestern city of Chengdu, who had been in the United States before coming home to China.
Two other cases have been confirmed in Hong Kong. Authorities there said they had quarantined six people who travelled with the second case, a 24-year-old man, by plane from San Francisco.
A further 45 people who sat near him on his journey had already left Hong Kong, they said.
The cases in China and Hong Kong highlighted concerns that the virus -- believed to be a mix of bird and human flu which came together in pigs -- could spread further around the world as sufferers travelled by air.
Belgium on Wednesday confirmed its first case of swine flu in a 28-year-old man who also had been in the United States, Health Minister Laurette Onkelinx said.
In Mexico, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said the death toll had climbed to 60 and the number of infected patients to nearly 2,400, as experts raced to test a backlog of samples.
But Cordova insisted that Mexico's beaches and resorts -- an important source of foreign income -- were safe for visitors.
"There's no risk to tourists," he said, noting that most of the flu cases detected in holiday hotspots like Cancun and Acapulco dated back nearly two weeks.
The swine flu outbreak was expected to cost Mexico's economy around 2.3 billion dollars -- or about 0.3 percent of gross domestic product.
"Of course it's been very unpleasant, but the country's still there," Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa said.
"We've got our hotels, infrastructure, we're ready and waiting to receive tourists and receive investors and investment, and we're gradually proceeding towards normality again."
--Agencies
China on Thursday stepped up the search for people who came into contact with the mainland's two confirmed swine flu patients, as Belgium became the latest European nation hit by the virus.
Authorities in the Chinese capital Beijing and eastern Shandong province were looking for plane and train travellers who had come into contact with a 19-year-old student who on Wednesday was confirmed to have the A(H1N1) virus.
China, criticised for its handling of the SARS crisis six years ago, has reacted aggressively to prevent a major outbreak in the world's most populous nation of swine flu, which so far has killed more than 60 in the Americas.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday more than 5,700 cases had been reported in 30 nations -- more than half of them, including three fatalities, in the United States.
More than 2,000 other cases are in Mexico, the origin of the outbreak where the WHO has confirmed 56 fatalities and national authorities reported a further four.
More than 350 people have been infected and one person has died in Canada, where the 19-year-old Chinese man, identified only by his surname Lu, had been before arriving in Beijing last week.
He apparently felt ill on Sunday, two days after landing in China, but nevertheless boarded a train on Monday for Shandong province with a fever, sore throat and a headache.
The provincial health department was still looking for more than 20 people who travelled in the same train carriage with Lu, as well as any passengers from his Air Canada flight to Beijing.
Lu became the second confirmed flu sufferer on the mainland after a 30-year-old man in the southwestern city of Chengdu, who had been in the United States before coming home to China.
Two other cases have been confirmed in Hong Kong. Authorities there said they had quarantined six people who travelled with the second case, a 24-year-old man, by plane from San Francisco.
A further 45 people who sat near him on his journey had already left Hong Kong, they said.
The cases in China and Hong Kong highlighted concerns that the virus -- believed to be a mix of bird and human flu which came together in pigs -- could spread further around the world as sufferers travelled by air.
Belgium on Wednesday confirmed its first case of swine flu in a 28-year-old man who also had been in the United States, Health Minister Laurette Onkelinx said.
In Mexico, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said the death toll had climbed to 60 and the number of infected patients to nearly 2,400, as experts raced to test a backlog of samples.
But Cordova insisted that Mexico's beaches and resorts -- an important source of foreign income -- were safe for visitors.
"There's no risk to tourists," he said, noting that most of the flu cases detected in holiday hotspots like Cancun and Acapulco dated back nearly two weeks.
The swine flu outbreak was expected to cost Mexico's economy around 2.3 billion dollars -- or about 0.3 percent of gross domestic product.
"Of course it's been very unpleasant, but the country's still there," Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa said.
"We've got our hotels, infrastructure, we're ready and waiting to receive tourists and receive investors and investment, and we're gradually proceeding towards normality again."
--Agencies