CHENGDU, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese mainland's first
confirmed A/H1N1 patient who was only identified by the family name Bao is
recovering, said He Jun, spokesman of Chengdu City Health Department in Sichuan
Province, Tuesday.
"Bao's life signs are stable: normal temperature,
alleviated symptoms, lighter coughing after three days' medication and care by
medical workers from the Health Ministry, Sichuan Province and Chengdu City," He
said at a news briefing held by Chengdu City Government Tuesday.
Bao was also relieved of anxiety through
psychological intervention and counseling, and was in a healthy mood, said He.
Bao's father and girlfriend, both of whom had close
contact with the patient and were requested to receive medical observation at
Chengdu Infectious Diseases Hospital, the same hospital where Bao is kept, were
transferred to the centralized observation camp of Chengdu City Tuesday
afternoon.
Bao, 30, who had been studying at an American
university, arrived in Beijing on board the Northwest Airlines flight NW029 May
9, after making a transfer in Tokyo from St Louis, Missouri, and St. Paul,
Minnesota in the United States. His body temperature was normal when entering
China. He then flew from Beijing to Chengdu on Sichuan Airlines flight 3U8882
the same day.
Bao was found to have a fever on the flight from
Beijing to Chengdu accompanied by a sore throat, coughing, a stuffy nose and
sneezing.
He went to the Sichuan People's Hospital after
getting off the plane, and was tested "weakly positive" to A/H1N1 virus twice by
the Sichuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention Sunday. He was then
transferred to the Chengdu Infectious Disease Hospital. The Ministry of Health
said Monday morning he tested positive for A/H1N1 influenza.
To prevent A/H1N1 flu from spreading in the Chinese
mainland, Sichuan Province is seeking passengers who were on the same flight
3U8882 with Bao and other people with close contacts with these passengers.
A total of 125 people were put under quarantine in
Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, as of midday Tuesday, including 94
passengers and 31 other people with contact with the passengers, said He.
There were 150 passengers on flight 3U882. The crew
were put under quarantine.
Chengdu didn't received reports about new confirmed
or suspected A/H1N1 cases as of 4 p.m. Tuesday.
In the meantime, Chengdu City Center for Disease
Control and Prevention has dispatched five groups down to different urban
districts to guide and supervise A/H1N1 disease prevention efforts there.
Northwards, Beijing opened a second venue for
quarantine purpose near the Capital Airport Monday, said Yu Debin, deputy chief
of Beijing Municipal Tourism Administration who is appointed as
commander-in-chief of medical observation venues for A/H1N1 flu.
The first venue used for quarantine is Guomenlu Hotel
near the airport. This hotel, with only 188 rooms, which was used to quarantine
people in an earlier flu case involving a Mexican national who ended up in Hong
Kong, keeps 163 people under quarantine.
And the second venue, Jinglin Mansion, is at the
south of the Capital Airport and has 191 guestrooms. Yu didn't give an exact
number of people being kept under quarantine at Jinglin Mansion at the moment.
There were altogether 233 passengers on flight NW029,
including 106 foreign nationals, said Xu Xiaoyuan, deputy chief of the
infectious disease section with the No.1 Hospital affiliated to Peking
University, at a press conference held by the Chinese Health Ministry in Beijing
Monday afternoon.
The health ministry confirmed that most of the
passengers from the flight had already been tracked down and isolated at local
health institutions in 21 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.
The efforts to track down those who had contact with
Bao turn out to be arduous.
In Beijing, for instance, the municipal health
department had contacted 139 out of the 147 people on flight NW029, and were
still looking for the other eight passengers as of 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, said Deng
Ying, chief of Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The searching information had been published on
television.
Among the 139 contacted, 123 had been quarantined in
Beijing, another 13 in other province while three had left China, said the
department.
According to Deng, Bao stayed for more than nine
hours at Xinhanglv Hotel in Shunyi district before he caught flight 3U8882.All
103 people around the hotel, including nine foreign nationals, were therefore
told to keep a week-long observation at the hotel.
None had shown fever symptoms, said Deng.
Deng said the municipal health department had also
informed concerned localities to seek 10 other people who took the same van from
the hotel to the airport together with Bao.
Two more passengers on flight 3U8882 had been found
and put under quarantine in southwest China's Guizhou Province, said the
provincial health department on Tuesday evening.
Another two people, who had close contact with the
two passengers respectively, had been also kept for observation, said the
department, adding that none of the four was found any abnormal symptoms.
Sichuan Health Department reported Tuesday evening
its finding of the last passenger on flight 3U8882.
The passenger was found nothing abnormal, according
to the department.
Bao was the second confirmed case of A/H1N1 influenza
in China. A 25-year-old male Mexican was confirmed on May 1 in Hong Kong to be
infected with influenza A/H1N1, and those who were in close contact with him
were put under quarantine in 19 mainland regions.
One suspected case of A/H1N1 influenza was reported
in eastern China's Shandong Province, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on
Tuesday evening.
The case, the second of its kind on the Chinese
mainland so far, involved a man surnamed Lv who traveled from Canada and arrived
in Beijing on Flight AC029 on May 8.
Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang (2nd R.
front) gestures while visiting the Chengdu Infectious Disease Hospital,
which accepted Chinese mainland's first confirmed A/H1N1 patient surnamed
Bao, in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, May 11,
2009. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei) Photo
Gallery>>>
BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese leaders, including President Hu Jintao
and Premier Wen Jiabao, Monday called for enhanced vigilance and strict steps
against the A/H1N1 influenza after the country's mainland reported its first
case.
"We must attach great importance to the fact that the flu epidemic is still
spreading in some countries and regions, and that China has discovered one
case," Hu said after learning about the latest development of the epidemic. Full story
Photo taken on May 12, 2009 shows the
Jinan Infectious Disease Hospital where a man surnamed Lu involved in a
suspected case of A/H1N1 influenza receives treatment, in Jinan, capital
of east China's Shandong Province. The suspected case of A/H1N1 influenza
was reported in Shandong Province, the Ministry of Health said on Tuesday
evening. Lu has been sent to the Jinan Infectious Disease Hospital for
isolation and treatment. (Xinhua/Zhu Zheng) Photo
Gallery>>>
BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- One suspected case of A/H1N1
influenza was reported in eastern China's Shandong Province, the Ministry of
Health (MOH) said on Tuesday evening.
The case, the second of its kind on the Chinese
mainland so far, involved a man surnamed Lv who traveled from Canada and arrived
in Beijing on Flight AC029 on May 8. Full story
Media reporters gather outside the
Chengdu Infectious Disease Hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan Province of China,
on May 10, 2009. (Xinhua/Chen Jianli) Photo
Gallery>>>
BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese mainland male surnamed
Bao, who recently returned from the United States, tested positivefor the A/H1N1
influenza, the Ministry of Health said Monday.
The 30-year-old patient was at the Chengdu Infectious Disease
Hospital in Chengdu, southwestern Sichuan's provincial capital. Those who had
close contact with him were isolated for observation. Full story
