Chinese health authorities on Sunday confirmed the country's eighth and ninth cases of swine flu, in a toddler and a 46-year-old man who had recently returned from the United States and Canada.
The baby girl arrived with her parents in Fuzhou, the capital of the southeastern province of Fujian, from New York via Hong Kong on Wednesday, the health ministry reported on its website.
Her parents and the taxi driver who picked them up at the airport were under medical observation, and of the 38 people who were near her on the plane from Hong Kong, 30 had already been found and the other eight had left the country.
The girl developed a high fever on Thursday and was quarantined in hospital, the ministry said. She was now in a stable condition and her temperature had returned to normal.
Xinhua news agency meanwhile reported that a 46-year-old man had tested positive for swine flu and was being treated in Beijing after returning from a trip to Toronto in Canada on Thursday.
It quoted Beijing health officials as saying the man was in stable condition.
Two other people — a 19-year-old man in Zhejiang province and a 30-year-old man in Shanghai — were being treated as suspected cases, according to the health ministry.
China has yet to report a fatal case of swine flu.
More than 12,000 swine flu infections and 86 deaths have been confirmed worldwide, according to the most recent World Health Organization statistics.
earlier related report
Hong Kong confirms seventh swine flu case
Hong Kong officials on Sunday confirmed a new case of swine flu, raising the city's total number of infections to seven.
The new patient, a 21-year-old student, arrived from the United States via South Korea Friday night and was being treated in hospital, a spokesman for the Department of Health said.
"She had onset of sore throat on the way to Hong Kong. She developed fever the following morning and was admitted to the Kwong Wah Hospital in stable condition. She was transferred to Princess Margaret Hospital today," the spokesman said.
Laboratory analysis on her respiratory samples gave positive results for swine flu Sunday.
"She lives in Tsz Wan Shan with four family members who had been taken to Kwong Wah Hospital for examination. All of them were tested negative for human swine influenza," the spokesman said.
The new case came a day after officials confirmed swine flu in a mainland Chinese man from San Francisco and a Hong Kong woman studying in New York after they were detected by temperature sensors at Hong Kong airport and sent straight to hospital.
Hong Kong's latest cases came nearly three weeks after officials confirmed Asia's first case of the A(H1N1) virus, which sparked a week-long quarantine for around 300 hotel guests and staff in the city.
More than 12,000 cases and 86 deaths have been recorded worldwide since A(H1N1) influenza emerged in Mexico and the United States a month ago.
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