Chinese mainland's first confirmed A/H1N1 patient who was only identified by the family name Bao is recovering, said He Jun, spokesman of Chengdu City Health Department in Sichuan Province, Tuesday.
"Bao's life signs are stable: normal temperature, alleviated symptoms, lighter coughing after three days' medication and care by medical workers from the Health Ministry, Sichuan Province and Chengdu City," He said at a news briefing held by Chengdu City Government Tuesday.
Bao was also relieved of anxiety through psychological intervention and counseling, and was in a healthy mood, said He.
Bao's father and girlfriend, both of whom had close contact with the patient and were requested to receive medical observation at Chengdu Infectious Diseases Hospital, the same hospital where Bao is kept, were transferred to the centralized observation camp of Chengdu City Tuesday afternoon.
Bao, 30, who had been studying at an American university, arrived in Beijing on board the Northwest Airlines flight NW029 May 9, after making a transfer in Tokyo from St Louis, Missouri, and St. Paul, Minnesota in the United States. His body temperature was normal when entering China. He then flew from Beijing to Chengdu on Sichuan Airlines flight 3U8882 the same day.
Bao was found to have a fever on the flight from Beijing to Chengdu accompanied by a sore throat, coughing, a stuffy nose and sneezing.
He went to the Sichuan People's Hospital after getting off the plane, and was tested "weakly positive" to A/H1N1 virus twice by the Sichuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention Sunday. He was then transferred to the Chengdu Infectious Disease Hospital. The Ministry of Health said Monday morning he tested positive for A/H1N1 influenza.
To prevent A/H1N1 flu from spreading in the Chinese mainland, Sichuan Province is seeking passengers who were on the same flight 3U8882 with Bao and other people with close contacts with these passengers.
A total of 125 people were put under quarantine in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, as of midday Tuesday, including 94 passengers and 31 other people with contact with the passengers, said He.
There were 150 passengers on flight 3U882. The crew were put under quarantine.
Chengdu didn't received reports about new confirmed or suspected A/H1N1 cases as of 4 p.m. Tuesday.
In the meantime, Chengdu City Center for Disease Control and Prevention has dispatched five groups down to different urban districts to guide and supervise A/H1N1 disease prevention efforts there.
Northwards, Beijing opened a second venue for quarantine purpose near the Capital Airport Monday, said Yu Debin, deputy chief of Beijing Municipal Tourism Administration who is appointed as commander-in-chief of medical observation venues for A/H1N1 flu.
The first venue used for quarantine is Guomenlu Hotel near the airport. This hotel, with only 188 rooms, which was used to quarantine people in an earlier flu case involving a Mexican national who ended up in Hong Kong, keeps 163 people under quarantine.
And the second venue, Jinglin Mansion, is at the south of the Capital Airport and has 191 guestrooms. Yu didn't give an exact number of people being kept under quarantine at Jinglin Mansion at the moment.
There were altogether 233 passengers on flight NW029, including 106 foreign nationals, said Xu Xiaoyuan, deputy chief of the infectious disease section with the No.1 Hospital affiliated to Peking University, at a press conference held by the Chinese Health Ministry in Beijing Monday afternoon.
The health ministry confirmed that most of the passengers from the flight had already been tracked down and isolated at local health institutions in 21 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.
The efforts to track down those who had contact with Bao turn out to be arduous.
In Beijing, for instance, the municipal health department had contacted 121 out of the 147 people on flight NW029, and were still looking for 26 other passengers as of 2 p.m. Monday, including 24 foreign nationals, said Deng Ying, chief of Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to Deng, Bao stayed for more than nine hours at Xinhanglv Hotel in Shunyi district before he caught flight 3U8882. All 103 people around the hotel, including nine foreign nationals, were therefore told to keep a week-long observation at the hotel.
None had shown fever symptoms, said Deng.
Deng said the municipal health department had also informed concerned localities to seek 10 other people who took the same van from the hotel to the airport together with Bao.
Bao was the second confirmed case of A/H1N1 influenza in China. A 25-year-old male Mexican was confirmed on May 1 in Hong Kong to be infected with influenza A/H1N1, and those who were in close contact with him were put under quarantine in 19 mainland regions.
(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2009)
