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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Photo taken on May 23, 2009 shows the hospital where the A/H1N1 influenza patient is hospitalized in Fuzhou, capital city of east China's Fujian Province. The patient is a two-year-old girl coming from the United States. |
The patient, the eighth confirmed case on the Chinese mainland so far, is currently isolated and received medical treatment in the municipal hospital in Fuzhou, provincial capital of Fujian, said the ministry.
The girl was reported to be a suspected A/H1N1 flu case Saturday afternoon.
The ministry said the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had conducted tests on the patient's samples on Saturday, which showed she was positive for the virus. A team of five experts from the Health Ministry made the final conclusion on Sunday.
The patient is currently in a stable condition, with a normal body temperature, the ministry said.
Eight close contacts of the patient including her family members and a taxi driver are still quarantined at the hospital. No one has shown flu symptoms.
The provincial health department has tracked down 30 of the 38 people who had close contact with the patient on board the KA662 flight, which the patient and her family took on Wednesday. Eight others have left the Chinese mainland.
The ministry said all the 30 people had been put under medical observation.
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 a 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 turned positive for possible A/H1N1 influenza disease.
On Saturday afternoon the patient had a body temperature of 37 degrees, with symptoms of cough and phlegm.
The ministry has reported the case to the World Health Organization and relevant countries and regions.
(Xinhua News Agency May 24, 2009)
