InfoAnda - HK seals central hotel to prevent swine flu spread

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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail Yahoo! Search Search: Sign InNew User? Sign Up News Home - Help Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Australia China India Indonesia Japan Malaysia Philippines Thailand Vietnam Search Search: HK seals central hotel to prevent swine flu spread By DIKKY SINN,Associated Press Writers AP - Sunday, May 3 HONG KONG - Hong Kong sealed a downtown hotel with 350 tourists and employees inside as authorities worked Saturday to prevent an outbreak of swine flu, searching for anyone who had contact with a Mexican tourist who brought the virus into the territory. ADVERTISEMENT The swift, aggressive action indicated how eager officials are to prove they have learned from the deadly spread of SARS in 2003, when Hong Kong was criticized for imposing quarantine measures too slowly. South Korea, meanwhile, reported the continent's second confirmed case in a woman who has been under quarantine since earlier in the week when she returned from Mexico. Worldwide, the total confirmed cases stands at 653, although the actual number of infections may be much larger. The virus has killed at least 16 people in Mexico and one in the U.S. With the disease on its doorstep, mainland China suspended all direct flights from Mexico, the virus's epicenter, and quarantined other travelers on the same flight as the 25-year-old Mexican who became Asia's first confirmed case of the virus late Friday. He landed first in Shanghai before continuing on to Hong Kong, where he checked into the Metropark Hotel. Health workers in white bodysuits patrolled the lobby of the Metropark in Hong Kong's Wan Chai bar and office district. About a dozen police officers wearing masks guarded the cordoned-off building, which was ordered quarantined for seven days starting Friday. A masked hotel guest inside flashed a handwritten sign through the lobby window to journalists swarming outside. It read, "We will exchange information for beer and food and cigarettes." Another quarantined guest, Frenchman Olivier Dolige, spoke to Associated Press reporters by computer using the Skype video-conferencing program. Dolige, a Paris native who was visiting Hong Kong for a trade fair, said he did not feel sick. He displayed the antiviral Tamiflu capsules he had been ordered to take as a precaution. He said he will turn 43 on Tuesday in quarantine. "I think about having my birthday with water and bad cake," he wrote. "No champagne." The Mexican patient in Hong Kong, who was not identified, arrived in Shanghai on AeroMexico flight AM 98 and continued on to Hong Kong on China Eastern Airlines flight MU 505. He developed a fever after arriving in the territory Thursday afternoon and was in stable condition Saturday in hospital isolation. In Beijing, the vice director of Ditan hospital, Cheng Jun, said 15 people from the flight _ five Mexican and 10 Chinese _ were hospitalized for observation but had not shown any symptoms. In addition, one passenger each who went to Jiangsu and Hebei provinces have been placed in quarantine, he said. Taiwanese Minister of Health Yeh Ching-chuan told reporters the government had tracked down 19 of the 26 passengers who transferred to Taipei from Hong Kong after traveling on the same flight as the Mexican. He said none had shown signs of illness. Hong Kong officials have tracked down 36 passengers who sat near the Mexican on his flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong and two taxi drivers who drove him, said Thomas Tsang, controller of Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection. Their condition wasn't immediately clear. The 350 people quarantined in the Metropark are all healthy, Tsang said. Though U.S. officials have already begun to express hope the epidemic may fizzle, authorities took no chances in Hong Kong. Experts fear the disease will be more difficult to contain if it begins to spread through Asia's densely populated countries. During the SARS outbreak, an infected doctor who checked into a Hong Kong hotel later died, but not before infecting a resident of the Chinese territory and 16 other hotel guests. Those guests spread the virus internationally, and it eventually killed more than 770 people, including 299 in Hong Kong. Still, a Hong Kong infectious diseases specialist criticized the hotel quarantine as a political move that served little purpose because it only locked down a small group of people and scared away tourists. "This is only one point in his journey. And it's not the highest risk point in his journey. Flu spreads through coughs or sneezes at close range. People who lived above and below him are nearly not at risk at all," Lo Wing-lok said. Tsang acknowledged the quarantine was a tough measure and apologized for inconveniencing the hotel guests but defended the government's decision. "Because this is the first confirmed case in Hong Kong, we opted for a strict measure to cut off the chain of the virus spread," Tsang said. A World Health Organization spokesman stopped short of a wholesale endorsement of the move but said the U.N. agency was pleased. "We don't have a policy on quarantining hotels in situations like this, but we like governments to be as sure as they can that they're controlling the situation rather than missing opportunities. So in that context, we're happy with what Hong Kong has done," Peter Cordingley said. Singapore, which hasn't reported any confirmed cases of swine flu, also stepped up precautions. Its Ministry of Health announced that starting from Monday, it will quarantine for a week any visitors and returning citizens who have been in Mexico in the past week. In Thailand, a group of 14 Thai students and teachers returning Sunday from an exchange program in Mexico would be greeted at the airport by a medical team, health officials said. "If any of them have fever, they will be taken to the hospital" and quarantined for at least seven days, said Paijit Warachit, deputy permanent secretary at the Health Ministry. Authorities will request contact information from all passengers on the plane, he said. Email Story IM Story Printable View Blog This Recommend this article 0 users recommend Sign in to recommend this article » Most Recommended Stories » Related Articles: Asia Pacific Japan says shares concerns on Iran nuclear driveAFP - 1 hour 16 minutes ago Authorities scramble to halt swine flu in AsiaAFP - 1 hour 42 minutes ago Old Japanese maps on Google Earth unveil secretsAP - 1 hour 51 minutes ago China's Liu upsets Guo at Table Tennis champsAFP - 1 hour 55 minutes ago 'Hospital hit' in Sri Lanka, civilians deadAFP - Sunday, May 3 Most Popular – Asia Pacific Viewed Chrysler begins court bid for quick bankruptcy exit Kenyan women to sex-starve men -- for politics Citigroup may need $10 bln more: report Swine flu spreads economic shivers ExxonMobil profit plunges 58 percent View Complete List » Search: Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte Ltd. (Co. Reg. No. 199700735D). 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