China reported Monday a suspect case of swine flu in its southern Guangdong province involving a man who recently returned to the mainland from Canada and the United States.
The man, aged 59, was diagnosed with the A(H1N1) virus, as it is officially known, following a preliminary test in the provincial capital of Guangzhou, the health ministry said in a statement on its website.
China's regulations on infectious diseases require the central government health authorities to run a second test to confirm and upgrade it from a suspected case.
The patient, who was not identified, travelled into China by train from neighbouring Hong Kong after returning from a trip to Canada and the United States via South Korea, the ministry said.
The man was quarantined after a customs checkpoint in Guangzhou detected he had a fever, it added.
China has so far confirmed three mainland cases of swine flu. Three other cases have been discovered in Hong Kong.
Health authorities in Guangdong are searching for passengers and crew who travelled on the same train with the suspect case, the ministry said.
Last week, China announced its first confirmed swine flu case, a 30-year-old man who arrived in the southwestern city of Chengdu from the United States via Tokyo and Beijing.
The swine flu has killed more than 70 people worldwide.
A total of 8,480 confirmed cases have been reported in 39 countries, according to the World Health Organization.
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