HONG KONG, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Nine new influenza A/H1N1 cases were confirmed in Asia-Pacific region on Saturday, with three on the Chinese Mainland, three in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, two in the Philippines and One in Thailand.
China reported three new confirmed A/H1N1 flu cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases on the Chinese Mainland to 24.
The one in the southeastern province of Fujian involves a local who studied in Canada. The other two in Beijing involve a Chinese American and a Chinese student who studied in the United States.
Doctors confirmed the 23-year-old man in Fujian positive for A/H1N1 flu after assessing his symptoms and laboratory testing results Saturday afternoon.
The man, who left arrived in Shanghai from Toronto on Wednesday, developed headache and a sore throat on Friday morning and went to a local hospital. He was tested positive for A/H1N1 flu by the municipal Center of Disease Control and Prevention of Quanzhou. The provincial Center of Disease Control and Prevention reexamined Saturday morning the results which was also positive.
The U.S. citizen, surnamed Bao, left Chicago for Beijing Tuesday on flight UA851. The 54-year-old woman developed symptoms of a dry throat and a stuffy and running nose Thursday. She was sent to hospital after her temperature rose to 38.1 degrees Celsius Friday.
The student in Beijing, surnamed Li, arrived in Beijing on Wednesday. He saw doctor Friday after showing symptoms of fever and body aches.
The two were tested positive for A/H1N1 by the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention Friday.
In Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, three people were tested positive for the A/H1N1 virus on Saturday, taking the total number of confirmed cases of the disease in the city to 23.
The first case involved a 21-year-old man. He stayed in the United States from May 15 to 27 and returned to Hong Kong on May 28 from New York by taking a flight of Continental Airlines.
The patient had onset of headache in the middle of the flight and developed fever and sore throat after arriving home. He consulted a private doctor on the morning of May 29.
The second case involved an eight-year-old boy living in the United States. The boy, accompanied with three family members, arrived in Hong Kong on May 30 from San Francisco by taking a flight of Singapore Airlines.
The boy developed fever, cough, runny nose and malaise during the flight. He was intercepted by Port Health Office and was kept in a hospital for isolation.
The third case involve a 19-year-old woman studying in the United States. She returned to Hong Kong from New York on the evening of May 28.
She had onset of fever, cough and sore throat on the afternoon of May 29, and was admitted to hospital for isolation.
Laboratory analysis on respiratory sample taken from the three patients yielded positive results for A/H1N1 influenza Saturday.
In the Philippines, Philippine health officials confirmed two more cases of Influenza A/H1N1 on Saturday, bringing the total number of infected patients to 16 in the Southeast Asian country.
The newly-confirmed patients are Filipinos, a 51-year-old female and a 21-year-old male who both had a history of travel to the United States and arrived in Manila on May 26.
In Thailand, the Thai Public Health Ministry announced on Saturday the third infected case of Influenza A/H1N1.
According to Dr. Prat Boonyawongvirot, the ministry's permanent secretary, a 50-year-old Thai woman tested positive for the flu after visiting the United States for 10 days with her family.
The woman developed high fever on May 24 while she was still in the United States. She arrived in Bangkok on May 26 and asked for medical treatment on the same day in a Bangkok hospital.
Prat said her samples were sent to test at the Siriraj and Chulalongkorn hospitals and the Department of Medical Science. The results of the lab test released on Saturday showed that she had the influenza.
