Swine Flu Spreads into Asia

Source: Al Jazeera

South Korea has confirmed the country's first case of the H1N1 flu, making it the second Asian nation to report an outbreak of the potentially fatal virus.

A 51-year-old woman has been in quarantine since returning from Mexico, Lee Jong-koo, chief of the state disease control centre, told a news conference on Saturday.

Seoul's confirmation came as China quarantined hundreds of people in a Hong Kong hotel and cancelled all flights between the city of Shanghai and Mexico.

A traveller who arrived in Hong Kong from Mexico via Shanghai has tested positive for H1N1 strain of the influenza virus.

All of the 176 passengers and 13 crew from the Mexicana airlines flight which brought the traveller to Shanghai will also be placed under "seven-day medical observation", China's health ministry said.

It called on all passengers from that flight and another which took the Mexican patient from Shanghai, to Hong Kong to get in touch with the health authorities "to ensure that all passengers can get timely medical tests".

Quarantine

Health workers in white bodysuits patrolled the lobby of Metropark Hotel in Hong Kong on Saturday as guests picked up bottles of water, chocolate milk and bread before returning to their rooms.

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Police officers wearing masks guarded the building, which was cordoned off with police tape.

A Hong Kong-based infectious diseases specialist criticised the quarantine as an over-reaction and said it served little practical purpose.

"This is only one point in his journey. And it's not the highest risk point in his journey. Flu spreads through coughs or sneezes at close range. People who lived above and below him are nearly not at risk at all," Lo Wing-lok said.

But Donald Tsang, Hong Kong's leader, defended the decision in light of the Sars (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in 2003, which killed nearly 300 people in the territory.

"I'd rather err on the side of caution than miss the opportunity to contain the disease," he said.

India fears

India was also monitoring two patients suspected of having contracted H1N1 after arriving from abroad, according to doctors.

"Both of them are under observation in an isolation ward. We have done all the tests, and samples have been sent to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases," NK Chaturvedi, medical superintendent of the state-run Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, said. CONT...