2-yr-old girl, mainland's 8th flu case

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-24 14:18

BEIJING -- China's Health Ministry confirmed Sunday that a two-year-old girl in eastern Fujian Province, who returned from the United States with her family via Hong Kong tested positive for the A(H1N1) flu.

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The patient, the eighth confirmed case on the Chinese mainland so far, was currently isolated and received medical treatment in the municipal hospital in Fuzhou, provincial capital of Fujian, said the ministry.

On Tuesday morning, the patient and her family took the flight CX841 at New York International Airport and reached Hong Kong at 2 p.m. on the following day.

Staying for about three hours at Hong Kong airport, they took flight KA662 and arrived at Changle International Airport at 6:30 p.m. They then took taxi going home. The taxi driver has been located and contacted.

At around 8 a.m. Thursday, the baby had acute respiratory infection symptoms, with a body temperature of 39 degrees. She was then sent to the municipal hospital in Changle, where preliminary tests came back positive for possible A(H1N1) influenza disease.

The eight close contacts of the patient in hospital were put under quarantine. The local health bureau also tried to find those who may have had close contact with the patient during the flight.