H1N1 flu reaches more Chinese regions

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-09-06 13:06

BEIJING: More A/H1N1 influenza cases have been reported in China as the flu reached two more northwestern regions on Saturday.

Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region confirmed on Saturday its first A/H1N1 case, according to local health authorities.

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The case was reported in Xinshi District in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital, according to sources with the regional Public Health Department. It has been confirmed by China's Ministry of Health.

The patient, a middle school student, is in stable condition and receiving medical treatment in the Xinjiang Infectious Disease Hospital.

On Saturday night, 42 more confirmed cases were reported in Urumqi. The patients who were newly infected with the flu virus had close contact with the student, said Wang Xiaoyan, vice head of the regional Public Health Department.

She said none of the infected was in serious condition.

The northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region reported its first confirmed A/H1N1 case Saturday. The patient, 15, went back to the region after a visit to Europe. Local health authorities said he was in stable condition.

New cases of flu were also reported in schools in northwestern Qinghai, southeastern Fujian, southwestern Sichuan and northeastern Shaanxi provinces, involving 30 students.

In the eastern Shandong Province, nine confirmed flu cases were reported in Wangcun Middle School in Jimo City. The patients, all students of the school, are in stable condition, sources with Shandong Provincial Public Health Department said.

Nineteen students have been infected with the flu at a secondary school in Huizhou City, southern Guangdong Province, a spokesman with the Huizhou Municipal Health Bureau said.

"The first flu patient at the Huizhou Agricultural School, a boy student, is being quarantined at home," the spokesman said. "He has no fever or other flu symptoms now and the people who have close contact with him are in good physical condition."

He said the other 18 students are being quarantined and treated in hospital, and only three of them show fever symptom.

In Hefei, capital of eastern Anhui Province, another four students at the Anhui Institute of International Business were confirmed as having contracted A/H1N1 flu, the provincial health department said in a statement.

"They are being quarantined and treated at the Hefei Municipal Hospital of Infectious Disease," the statement said.

A/H1N1 flu outbreaks have also been reported in schools in different regions, such as provinces of Henan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Shandong, Hunan, and Jiangsu as well as the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The Chinese mainland has reported 4,415 cases of A/H1N1 flu, of which 3,577 have recovered, the Health Ministry said Friday evening, adding the flu has so far caused no deaths on the mainland.

Globally, the disease has killed about 2,000 people and infected more than 180,000. It has spread to more than 170 countries.