BEIJING, May 1 (Xinhua) -- As Hong Kong health
authorities confirmed Friday evening the first case of influenza A/H1N1
epidemic, China's Health Minister Chen Zhu had just warned against the possible
spread of the new strain of flu virus, echoing President Hu Jintao's call for
proactive prevention.
Policemen guard the quarantined
Metropark Hotel, where the patient of influenza A/H1N1 checked in, in
Wanchai of Hong Kong, south China, May 1, 2009. (Xinhua/Zhou
Lei) Photo
Gallery>>>
At an emergency teleconference Friday afternoon,
Minister Chen, a doctor-turned official, asked local health authorities to
designate hospitals to make all necessary preparations for any patients who
might contaminate the new flu virus variant, which allegedly originated from
North America in April.
Chen, a recognized hematologist who is also foreign
associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, said nationwide medical
workers should closely monitor outpatients who have pneumonia or flu-like
symptoms, as well as track people who report to stay withA/H1N1 virus-infected
people or travel in either Mexico or the United States, which had confirmed the
most cases of the H1N1 type A influenza.
Chen's remarks were obviously graver than that he
made at a news briefing Thursday afternoon, when the health minister exposed
that Chinese President Hu Jintao convened an emergency top-level meeting
discussing how to deal with any possible H1N1 influenza epidemic in China.
The Thursday meeting of the top leadership body, the
Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee
Political Bureau, was unusual when the epidemic was even out of the Chinese
borders.
Hu, also general secretary of the CPC Central
Committee, and other top leaders heard briefings of the country's prevention and
preparation for any possible flu epidemic.
As the World Health Organization (WHO) continuously
spiraled up global alerts on the flu virus, Premier Wen Jiabao set up three days
ago an inter-agency coordination mechanism, grouping the Ministry of Health, the
General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, and
the Ministry of Agriculture.
Premier Wen's stance sped up lab research on
diagnostic kits for ascertaining influenza A/H1N1 virus, which was announced by
Minister Chen on Thursday a quick success.
Very soon, Vice Premier Li Keqiang moved to Beijing's
Capital International Airport and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and
Prevention (China CDC) for work inspection.
The first confirmed case in China came from the Hong
Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) where the government identified
Friday evening a Mexican traveler who took a China Eastern Airlines flight from
Mexico to Hong Kong, via Shanghai.
Li Dexin, a principal investigator at the China CDC,
said in an interview with Xinhua that China is capable of diagnosing influenza
A/H1N1-infected people within 24 hours. Li estimated that the influenza A/H1N1
epidemic would be almost surely more vigorous than previous epidemics such as
severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the human bird flu.
Yang Weizhong, vice director of the China CDC, said
it is hard to predict where in the Chinese mainland the first influenza A/H1N1
case would be confirmed.
"In any case," Yang said, "China has switched on the
nationwide epidemic monitoring web as well as kept frequent contact with the
United States and the WHO on early verification and control of a national
pandemic threat."
At the same time, the State Food and Drug
Administration opened a green channel for testing and approving A/H1N1 vaccines.
Chinese government-authorized medical workers are working with American
colleagues and WHO officials to get sample A/H1N1 viruses as soon as possible
for related vaccine research and production.
The Ministry of Health just added influenza A/H1N1
into Category B of infectious diseases listed in the Infectious Diseases
Prevention Law, including SARS, HIV and virus hepatitis, but drafted contingency
plans for possible outbreak of influenza A/H1N1 as what are targeted at the most
threatening contagious diseases of Category A, including pestilence and cholera.
While constructing the preventive web against the new
global flu, China sent the first international humanitarian aid, worth five
million U.S. dollars, to Mexico early Friday to support Mexicans' disease combat
efforts.
All responses from the government, including the top
leadership, suggested unprecedented preparedness for a major public health
threat.
SARS broke out in early 2003. Of the world's 8,422
reported SARS cases in the year, 7,747 were found in China, including those in
Hong Kong and Taiwan, and globally 919 people died of SARS, of whom, 829 were in
China.
BEIJING, May 2 (Xinhua) --
China's Ministry of Health said early Saturday that prevention and control
measures were being taken after the Hong Kong health authorities confirmed on
Friday the first case of influenza A/H1N1 epidemic.
Medical workers transport boxes of
disinfectants to the quarantined Metropark Hotel, where the patient of
influenza A/H1N1 checked in, in Wanchai of Hong Kong, south China, May 1,
2009. Hong Kong has reported the first confirmed case of influenza A/H1N1
in the city, Chief Executive Donald Tsang announced on May 1. (Xinhua/Zhou
Lei) Photo
Gallery>>>
The patient, a 25-year-old Mexican, departed from Mexico
on board AM098 on April 29 and arrived in Shanghai at 6 a.m. on April 30. Then
he took the China Eastern Airlines MU505 at 11:20 a.m. to Hong Kong. Full story
GUANGZHOU, May 2 (Xinhua)
-- The health authorities of south China's Guangdong Province are seeking 11
people who had been on the same flight with a Mexican who was later found
infected with influenza A/H1N1, according to a notice issued by the Provincial
Public Health Bureau Saturday morning.
The patient and 41 other passengers on the flight AM098
arrived in Shanghai from Mexico on Thursday. The 41 passengers then flew to
Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province. Full story
BEIJING, May 2 (Xinhua) -- A senior Chinese epidemiological expert here suggested that people do not need to be panic when a new flu hit a large part of the world, but should meanwhile pay more attention to their health.
"What a common person needs to do now is what he usually does to protect himself from a normal flu," said Professor Huang Jianshi from the Peking Union Medical College, according to Saturday's China Youth Daily. "The key word is to stay healthy." Full story
HONG KONG, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong reported the first confirmed case of influenza A/H1N1 infection in the city on Friday, prompting authorities to immediately raise the flu alert level from "serious" to the highest level of "emergency".
"The patient is a Mexican arriving in Hong Kong on
Thursday by air via Shanghai," Chief Executive Donald Tsang told reporters after
an emergency meeting with senior officials of the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region (HKSAR) government. Full story
BEIJING, May 1 (Xinhua) -- The possibility of the H1N1 influenza epidemic (swine
flu) spreading to China is increasing and the prevention and control work is
"quite arduous," said China's Health Minister Chen Zhu here Friday.
Chen told a national teleconference on the prevention of
the epidemic that although there were no such flu cases found in China, its
possibility was increasing. Full story
BEIJING, May
1 -- China has developed an effective method for instant diagnosis of H1N1
influenza, known as "swine flu", Minister of Health Chen Zhu said on
Thursday.
The new method, which features a testing chemical reagent,
will be used at the center for disease control and prevention (CDC) offices at
all levels, he told a news conference. Full story
