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H1N1 flu positive patients recovering
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-15 13:17

H1N1 flu positive patients recovering

In this video grab, a patient surnamed Lv, the second confirmed case to test positive for A(H1N1) flu, talks to a doctor on his bed before talking with his father on the phone in an isolation ward in the Jinan Hospital of Infectious Diseases in Jinan, east China's Shandong province, May 14, 2009. [CFP]H1N1 flu positive patients recovering

According to Li, Lv is receiving antiviral medication -- Tamiflu and traditional Chinese medicine -- in accordance with suggestions given by medical experts from the Chinese Ministry of Health.

Apart from Lv, Shandong has not reported other new A(H1N1) flu suspected or confirmed cases.

Shandong health authorities said they had reached four of the 45 passengers who were in the same flight AC029 as Lv as of 2 pm Thursday. The four passengers were all quarantined and reported normal temperatures.

Search for other passengers in the flight is ongoing.

Zong Lin, chief of the disease control and prevention section of the Shandong Provincial Health Bureau, said health officials were sending text messages and running notices on TV to find the remaining passengers.

Health authorities in Hebei Province, a neighbor of Shandong, are also busy with seeking 22 passengers who reportedly were in the same train carriage as Lv but got off at stops inside Hebei or on the juncture of the two provinces before the train reached its final destination in Jinan. No progress has been reported in this front thus far.

Bao, the Chinese mainland's first A(H1N1) flu case, who has been kept at Chengdu Infectious Diseases Hospital for isolation and medical treatment for five days in Sichuan Province, southwest China, is also recovering fast.

All 147 passengers who had been exposed to Bao on Northwest Airlines flight NW029 from Tokyo to Beijing, had been contacted by the Beijing Health Department, said the department Wednesday.

Tian Ming, vice president of Chengdu Infectious Diseases Hospital, said Thursday that the time for Bao to be discharged from the hospital was not decided yet.

"Though he shows normal temperature, eats normally, and is in good mood," said Tian, "A(H1N1) flu is a new virus strain, the medical experts panel need to carry out a comprehensive review over Bao's recovery before a specific date could be given for him to be discharged from the hospital."

Tian disclosed that as of midday Thursday, 126 people who had contact with Bao had been put under quarantine at a local camp in Chengdu, while two other people who were said to be in the same flight with the confirmed A(H1N1) flu case in Shandong had also been quarantined. There are no reports of flu symptoms with them.

In the meantime, health authorities in China's Shanxi and Henan provinces said Thursday they quarantined 16 people who had exposed to Bao or Lv.

Beijing Health Department said Thursday evening as of 5 pm Thursday the department had quarantined 426 people and 131 had been released while the other 286 are still under medical observation in four hotels.

Beijing launched three search campaigns to look for the people who contacted with the three cases in Hong Kong, Sichuan and Shandong.

The department said it had appointed 38 medical institutions, which have the capability to set up flu examinations centers in 96 hospitals to examine any suspect flu patients.