1st flu case on China’s mainland

Agence France Presse

refid:11628232 ilişkili resim dosyası

The 30-year-old man surnamed Bao was hospitalized with a fever after arriving in Sichuan province in southwestern China on a flight from the United States via Tokyo and Beijing on Saturday, the Ministry of Health said.

"Sichuan province has confirmed a case of the A (H1N1) flu virus. This is our country's first case of A (H1N1)," spokesman Mao Qunan said in a statement posted on the ministry's website, using the virus's official name.

China had previously confirmed a case, a Mexican national, in the semi-autonomous southern city of Hong Kong. Officials said Bao, whose full name was not given, was in a stable condition at a hospital in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu. Bao had traveled to Beijing on Northwest Airlines flight NW029 from Tokyo before connecting on a domestic flight to Chengdu, the ministry said.

China, which has come under foreign criticism for its tough swine-flu quarantine measures, launched a search for Bao's fellow passengers from both flights, state media said.

A total of 4,694 confirmed swine flu cases have been reported in 30 countries, with 53 people killed by the virus, 48 of which have been in Mexico, the World Health Organization said on its Web site.