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Swine Flu: China Quarantines 300 In Hong Kong Hotel

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/01/swine-flu-china-quarantin_n_194684.html

HONG KONG — Hundreds of tourists and employees were under quarantine in a downtown Hong Kong hotel Saturday after a Mexican guest tested positive for swine flu.Later, (Later, all Mexicans in Hong Kong and China mainland had been released from the quarantine and flown back home by a chartered flight from the Mexican government without sign of Swine Flu.) With the outbreak on its doorstep, China suspended direct flights from the Latin American country.

Hours after the first confirmed case in Asia was reported, the continent got its second: Tests showed a South Korean woman also had the disease. She has been under quarantine since returning earlier this week from Mexico, the epicenter of the disease.

Nearly 170 people suspected of having swine flu have died in Mexico, where there are also almost 2,500 suspected cases. One toddler has died in the United States, which has 155 confirmed cases. Half a dozen countries in Europe have confirmed cases, as do Canada, Israel and New Zealand.

Though U.S. officials have already begun to express hope the epidemic may fizzle, authorities sprang into action in Hong Kong, where memories of 2003's deadly SARS outbreak are still fresh. Experts fear the disease will be more difficult to contain if it begins to spread through Asia's densely populated countries.

Health workers in white bodysuits patrolled the lobby of Metropark Hotel in Hong Kong early Saturday as guests picked up bottles of water, chocolate milk and bread before returning to their rooms by elevator. About a dozen police officers wearing masks guarded the building, which was cordoned off with police tape.

An Australian tourist who spent the night with friends in a Hong Kong suburb returned to the hotel Saturday morning to join the quarantine.

James Parer, 38, told reporters as he entered the hotel that he was not worried because the territory could draw on experience from its battle with SARS, severe acute respiratory disease.

"Hong Kong is the best place this could happen because it should be best prepared," said Parer, who was visiting Hong Kong to attend a trade fair.

During the 2003 SARS outbreak, an infected doctor who checked into a Hong Kong hotellater died, but not before infecting a resident of the Chinese territory and 16 other hotel guests. Those guests spread the virus internationally, which eventually killed more than 770 people, including 299 in Hong Kong.

Officials who did not initially impose quarantine measures during SARS were accused of responding slowly to the public health crisis.

By contrast, they acted decisively late Friday after a 25-year-old Mexican man was diagnosed with the disease. The patient was isolated at a hospital and was in stable condition.

"Given the current situation, I'd rather err on the side of caution than miss the opportunity to contain the disease," Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang said late Friday.

Reporters swarmed around the Metropark, in the city's Wan Chai bar and office district, pressing pieces of paper with their phone numbers against the lobby's window. Photos that ran in Hong Kong newspapers Saturday showed one masked guest flashing a handwritten sign to journalists overnight that said: "We will exchange information for beer and food and cigarettes."

Officials have conducted medical checkups on about 200 of the guests and staff holed up at the Metropark. Sixty people who had mild symptoms were taken to hospitals for follow-ups, Thomas Tsang, controller of Hong Kong's Center of Health Protection was quoted as saying on radio RTHK's Web site Saturday.

Another 12 guests who refused to stay the hotel were being quarantined at a suburban holiday camp, the Hong Kong government said in a statement Saturday.

Kevin Ireland, visiting from India on business trip, said he wasn't that concerned.

"I'm not worried, but there are some people who are really panicked," the 45-year-old told The Associated Press by phone. "We don't have any books to read. It's boring, but what can one do?"

Officials in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong hurried to locate the infected tourist's recent contacts on flights from Mexico to Shanghai and from Shanghai to Hong Kong.

The patient, who was not identified, arrived in Shanghai on Aero Mexico flight AM 98 and continued on to Hong Kong on China Eastern Airlines flight MU 505. He developed a fever after arriving in the territory Thursday afternoon.

Twenty-four Taiwanese citizens were on the flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong and traveled on to Taiwan on six separate flights Thursday, the island's Department of Health said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry in a notice on its Web site that it would suspend flights from Mexico to Shanghai, the only direct flight to the mainland. The government was also looking for 11 people who arrived on a flight from Mexico last week and traveled to southern China, raising questions about whether Beijing can effectively track those who could be infected.

In Hong Kong, Secretary for Food and Health York Chow said Saturday officials were still tracking down the two taxi drivers who drove the Mexican from the airport to his hotel and from his hotel to the hospital and urged them to contact authorities.

Two other travelers and a friend the man met with during his stay have been isolated in a hospital but have not shown symptoms of illness, Chow said late Friday.

South Korea also confirmed its first case of the disease on Saturday, state disease control center chief Lee Jong-koo said. The 51-year-old woman returned from Mexico on April 26 and reported to authorities the next day that she had flu symptoms. She has since been quarantined, but a doctor treating her told reporters Saturday that she is in good condition with few symptoms.

The country has one other probable case.

Health Ministry Examines 14 Thais Travelling from Mexico

http://www.thailandoutlook.tv/toc/ViewData.aspx?DataID=1014301

Although 14 Thai travelers returning from Mexico have tested negative for swine flu, they have volunteered to remain in hospital for further observation to ensure they are free of 2009 flu infection.

Fourteen Thais, including exchange students and teachers, arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport last night from Mexico and were taken to Bumratnaradoon Hospital to be tested for swine flu.

Paijit Warachit, deputy permanent secretary of the Ministry of Public Health, and Somchai Jakkaphan, director-general of the Disease Control Department, oversaw the procedure.

Somchai said all the test results were negative, but that the group were required to stay at the hospital for another 24 hours for observation.

However, one student with a high fever and two other people with runny noses and sore throats were separated from the rest for further observation and testing.

Meanwhile, the rest of the returning travelers have volunteered to remain at the hospital for 14 days to ensure that they are free of infection and to prevent any possible spread of the disease.

Meanwhile, Public Health Minister Wittaya Kaewparadai revealed that an 11-month-old infant in Buri Ram Province who recently returned from New Zealand has developed a flu-like symptom and will be quarantined for testing.

He also advised the public to consult doctors if they develop a flu symptom rather than buying medicine for themselves.

Mexico Objects to Quarantines Over Swine Flu in China

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/world/asia/05china.html

MEXICO CITY — Medical experts are calling the new influenza virus A(H1N1), but for many Mexicans it is simply a scarlet A.

From Chile, where sports officials declined to host Mexican soccer teams, to China, where the authorities forced even healthy resident Mexicans and Mexican travelers into quarantine, Mexicans say they have been typecast as disease carriers and subjected to humiliating treatment.

In a country of more than 100 million, only several hundred cases of swine flu have been confirmed, and 20 other countries have confirmed cases. But nonstop media coverage of a feared pandemic and the belief that the sometimes fatal virus originated in Mexico — which is disputed by Mexican health experts and officials — have overwhelmed calls by global health authorities to avoid panic while preparing for a broader outbreak.

Scientists have yet to pinpoint the origin of the virus, the earliest cases of which were found in the southwestern United States and in various parts of Mexico. But according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it contains genes from flu viruses that normally circulate in pigs in Europe and Asia, as well as avian and human genes. Some health experts say it also now appears less lethal than once feared.

The most aggressive response has come from China and Hong Kong, still gripped by memories of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. SARS spread widely in 2003 and killed more than 700 people.

On Saturday, Chinese authorities began confining dozens of seemingly healthy Mexicans to hotels and hospitals, even escorting some from their hotels in the middle of the night for testing, Mexican consular officials said Monday.

Chinese officials said they were seeking to isolate passengers on an aircraft that had at least one infected passenger, but the Mexican government accused China of unfairly quarantining its citizens and acting without regard to accepted public health practices.

Mexican diplomats were also angered by the suspension by four Latin American nations — Argentina, Peru, Ecuador and Cuba — of flights from Mexico in response to the flu outbreak.

In another dispute, sports officials in Chile turned down a request to host two Mexican soccer teams’ championship games. Health Minister José Ángel Córdova of Mexico said he had received an apology from Chile.

China’s actions posed the biggest challenge — and elicited the sharpest response. Mexico said it would fly its citizens home from China on a chartered flight on Tuesday, including 70 people being held in quarantine.

Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderón, lashed out on Sunday at unnamed countries that he said were “acting out of ignorance and disinformation” and taking “repressive, discriminatory measures.” The foreign minister, Patricia Espinosa, urged Mexicans to stay away from China and Hong Kong, calling their actions “unjustified”

(President Felipe Calderón just received the assistance from the Chinese government sent to Mexico to cope with the Influenza A health emergency. The donation comprised five million dollars, one million dollars in cash and four in supplies.)

Some epidemiologists agreed with the characterization.

“Quarantine is a concept that dates back to when you could enter a country only at a few ports, and there is almost no country in the world where that is true anymore,” said Dr. Andrew T. Pavia, a University of Utah professor who is chairman of the pandemic influenza task force of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Dr. Tim F. Jones, Tennessee’s state epidemiologist, said China’s actions were understandable given that nation’s experiences with SARS and avian influenza. But just as the United States will soon ease its mitigation measures like school closings, he said, he hoped that Chinese officials “would ease up, too.”

The strain of swine flu circulating now does not appear to be nearly as dangerous as was initially feared, so measures to control its spread should be no more severe than those used to control the usual seasonal influenzas, Dr. Jones said. “There is no trail of dead bodies,” he said.

Since Thursday, when an infected passenger from Mexico City arrived in Hong Kong, Chinese health officials have been rounding up his fellow passengers, as well as some Mexican travelers on other flights who showed no sign of illness. The man who arrived Thursday is the only confirmed case of swine flu in China.

Among those the authorities have sequestered are a number of Mexican passport holders who had not been home in months, including a consular official in Guangzhou who was briefly held and tested after he returned to China from a trip to Cambodia.

According to Mexican consular officials, those taken from their hotel rooms included some families with small children, who were initially told that they would be tested for the H1N1 virus and released, but were later informed that they would be held for a week.

Ma Zhaoxu, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said the quarantine measures were justified given the fast spread of the new flu strain.

“We hope Mexico could proceed from the overall interest of joint response to the disease, fully understand the necessary measures we have taken, and handle the issue in an objective and calm manner,” he said in a statement.

Mexican citizens are not the only ones being quarantined. On Sunday, a group of 29 exchange students from the University of Montreal in Canada were confined to a hotel in the northern city of Changchun, university officials said Monday.

The one infected man on the AeroMexico flight is currently hospitalized in Hong Kong. Before being hospitalized, the man briefly stayed at the Metropark Hotel there, where about 300 guests and employees have been required to remain inside for a week.

In Beijing, 10 Mexican citizens have been confined to the Guomen Hotel, which sits directly behind the city’s designated influenza pandemic hospital. On Sunday, the Mexican consul delivered food to the hotel, but he was not allowed to talk to the sequestered guests.

Amid the uncertainty of the outbreak, Mexicans are also being subjected to discrimination by other Mexicans.

Late last week, a crowd of people in the Mexican state of Guerrero stoned two cars that had license plates from Mexico City. The protesters were apparently worried by the arrival of people from the capital, where the influenza has hit hardest.

Mexican officials are eager to underscore the uncertainties about the origins of the disease. Mr. Córdova, who has led Mexico’s response to the crisis, makes the point subtly, noting in his daily news briefings that the earliest cases were detected “in the United States and Mexico,” always mentioning the countries in that order.

Irked that some in the United States — especially groups that favor limiting the number of Mexican immigrants — have begun calling the virus “the Mexican flu,” some radio commentators in Mexico City have fired back with a label of their own for the outbreak: “California flu.”

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My reaction

- The disease has been spreading all around the world. It is needed to take serious control on this to save world population.

- Every countries seem to take a very serious action to prevent the disease from outsiders. I think we all should prepare ourselves very well for not being infected and virus spreader to others. The carefulness must be placed everywhere even in its own country.

- Mexicans has been accused as a disease carriers. Although, Mexico is the first country found the virus but nowadays there are more nationality out there who contain the virus.

- The inappropriate reaction has been used with all Mexican immigrants. I think it is better way to limit the virus from where it begins until there's the signal of safe. Mexicans would feel terrified but they should understand the way it is.

- The quarantined Mexicans in Hong Kong hotel were found no disease. However, it was no virus found but it was safe to protect it first before there's no time to defend.

- Thais who just arrived from Mexico got tested with no sign of influenza virus A (H1N1). Even in Thailand is still no sign of virus, but it's better to be scared of this thing to not make it worse.

- Hong Kong is the first country in Asia containing case of infected people. And this is very close to Thailand, so we're now need to be ready enough.

- China is concerned the outbreak of Swine flu to be like SARS in 2003. Because that time the world lost hundreds of people which it shouldn't be happened again now and in the future. Readiness and preparedness are the two first words that every countries around the world have to be considered most in this time to conquer this.

- China and Mexico have reached a conflict by accusing of Mexico to China from their action as unjustified. I know there were another way that China can do better way to prevent the disease suddenly but this kind of virus spreads very quite fast, so this action wasn't that bad for this fast virus. If they were slower than virus itself the crucial situation like SARS in 2003 would be introduced again because of the small of Hong Kong country and mass of people which will surely fasten the spreading. I think Mexicans should understand this.

Conclusion

Seems like every countries in the world are acting weird and negative to Mexican people who humiliated by being the carriers of influenza virus A (H1N1), Swine Flu. All flight ins and outs over the world were all cancelled from the fear of anything showing word ‘Mexico’. This reaction causing angry probably to all Mexicans and especially their President Felipe Calderon who just stated against the idea of China in quarantine his citizen.

As we all knew the result of the unawareness and loose control of SARS in 2003 which killed people for more than 700 worldwide brought such a terrible moment into our life. However, this strict action of Chinese government, I think they had done the right way as WHO suggestion to protect not just Chinese people, but also people around the world. It is not I don’t feel sorrow for Mexicans in what they have suffered from quarantine in Hong Kong hotel and other oversea stays, but everyone need to think wider, less loss is often better than more loss. To calm this virus down, China was wise to block this deadly virus immediately in one place for being vanished and cut the opportunity to let it spread out.

Nevertheless, human right has been criticized for Chinese mainland government but in my opinion and research, documentary shows the evidence of no violent thing happen to Mexicans and I think people should understand what we are facing is not just simple but it’s lethal.