South Korea confirmed its first case of swine flu one day after a patient in Hong Kong was diagnosed with the disease, as Asian health officials battle to contain a virus that has spread to 15 nations on three continents.
“After a period of cell cultivation, we have deemed that the patient has contracted the virus,” Lee Jong Koo, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, told reporters today in Seoul.
South Korea this week raised its alert status, issued a travel warning on Mexico, tightened checks on inbound travelers and boosted inspections of pork products. Hong Kong declared a public emergency after confirming its first case yesterday, one day after the World Health Organization said it may soon declare the world’s first influenza pandemic since 1968.
Hong Kong’s first swine flu patient is a man who arrived from Mexico on April 30, Chief Executive Donald Tsang said yesterday, urging the public not to panic. The government said today it moved 12 guests of the Metro Park Hotel, where the man stayed, to a holiday village prepared as a quarantine center.
Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control told 24 people who traveled on the same Shanghai-to-Hong Kong flight and later returned to Taiwan to quarantine themselves until May 7, according to a statement last night. It also raised the travel alert for Hong Kong to yellow, the lowest of a three-scale rating.
Hundreds more cases of swine flu are suspected in New York, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.
The virus, known formally as influenza A (H1N1), is confirmed to have infected more than 350 people with 10 deaths, according to the WHO’s Web site. The symptoms of the disease may be no more severe than seasonal flu ailments, world health officials said.
South Korean Nun
A 51-year-old South Korean nun, who returned to Korea on April 26 from a week of aid activities in Mexico, is being treated at a military hospital in Gyeonggi province, outside the capital city of Seoul.
“Her fever, coughing and other symptoms have cleared,” said Choi Kang Won, the doctor in charge of her care. “She’s been treated with Tamiflu, and we’ll discuss the possibility of releasing her after this weekend.”
The patient may be released from the hospital as early as tomorrow, Yonhap News reported, without saying where it obtained the information. KCDC officials declined to confirm the report.
Another South Korean “probable” swine flu patient is a 44-year-old nun who may have been infected by her colleague in the nation’s first case of secondary contagion, Lee said.
Masks & Soap
South Korea’s customs officers at Incheon International Airport and other airports and shipping ports have tightened the screening process for travelers and disinfection procedures on carriers and ships, Prime Minister Han Seung Soo’s office said in an e-mailed statement today.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry announced late yesterday it will provide $500,000 worth of emergency medical aid to Mexico, including masks, thermometers and disinfectant liquid soap.
The 25-year-old Mexican patient in Hong Kong is in Ruttonjee Hospital in the city’s Wan Chai district, Tsang said.
A man wearing a surgical mask was seen carrying boxes labeled “Tamiflu” into the lobby of the Metro Park Hotel. Hong Kong has 20 million doses of Tamiflu, made by Roche Holding AG, and other anti-flu medicines in stock, the South China Morning Post reported April 27.
Hong Kong pledged to step up measures to contain swine flu after guests at a second local hotel were suspected of having the virus.
Hotel Guests
Some guests in L’hotel Nina et Convention Centre in Tsuen Wan are being examined after showing signs of fever, Lam Ping- yan, the city’s director of health, told legislators at a meeting today broadcast on Cable TV, without providing details.
Six or seven hotel guests were examined because they were on the same flight as the Mexican man, said Kelvin Shum, assistant front office manager at L’hotel Nina. They have no symptoms and the hotel remains open, he added.
The city’s international airport and all border check points will pay special attention to all Mexican-passport holders and give them health inspections, York Chow, the city’s health secretary, told legislators in Hong Kong today. The government will make announcements by tomorrow on whether schools will be closed from Monday, he said.
Asia is better prepared to respond to an outbreak of the swine flu virus, after its experiences with severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and avian flu, Asian Development Bank Managing Director Rajat Nag said. SARS killed 299 people in Hong Kong in 2003.
“It’s an evolving situation but systems are in place to deal with it,” Nag said. “We have to watch very carefully but not overreact.”
Suspended Flights
China has suspended direct flights from Mexico to Shanghai on concern travelers may transmit swine flu, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement posted on its Web site. Resumption of flights will depend on how well the danger of a viral pandemic is controlled, it said.
The Chinese government may send a chartered flight to bring home Chinese who were scheduled to fly to Shanghai from Mexico City on May 3, the ministry said.
Health authorities in China’s southern Guangdong province are seeking to contact 11 people who were on the same flight as the Mexican patient in Hong Kong and have not yet been identified, according to a notice today from the provincial health bureau.
Test Results
In Japan, a Tokyo laboratory is testing to determine if an infant at a U.S. military base is infected with the swine flu virus. Specimens from the baby have been sent to labs in Japan and the U.S., and the hospital at Yokota Air Base in suburban Tokyo is awaiting results.
New Zealand, which has reported four confirmed cases of swine flu, cut the number of suspected cases to 101 from 116, the Ministry of Health said in a statement. There are 269 people in isolation being treated with Tamiflu, down from 388 on Friday.
0 comments:
Post a Comment