China Quarantines New Orleans Mayor And Wife Over Swine Flu

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Main Category: Swine Flu
Also Included In: Public Health;  Flu / Cold / SARS;  Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 08 Jun 2009 - 9:00 PDT

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Although they have no symptoms themselves, the mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, Ray Nagin, his wife and a member of his security staff are being held in quarantine in Shanghai, China, because they travelled on an aircraft with a passenger who is being treated for symptoms of H1N1 swine flu.

The mayor is in China on an economic development trip said a CNN report.

A statement issued by the mayor's office on Sunday said:

"The mayor is being treated with utmost courtesy by Chinese officials."

The mayor's director of communications, Ceeon Quiett, told CNN that they have been in touch with him and he is "in good spirits", although they have no idea how long he will be held in quarantine.

The Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed they were holding three Americans in quarantine at the Jinjiang Inn in the Nanhui district of Shanghai, but they did not say who they were.

In the meantime, the Chinese authorities confirmed 8 more human cases of H1N1 swine flu on the mainland on Sunday, bringing the overall total to 80.

Three of the new cases are in Beijing, including a 12-year old Chinese boy and two health officials from another country in southeast Asia who were on a training course in Beijing.

According to the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau, the boy studied in the US and travelled back to China from Orlando on Saturday, reported Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency.

The other five cases include two adults in Shanghai (a 47-year-old Chinese woman and a 24-year-old French man), a toddler in Fujian Province, and two people in the city of Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

Of the 80 cases on the mainland, 6 are thought to have caught the H1N1 virus through local transmission. There have been no deaths from the virus, said Xinhua.

The Beijing authorities are citing schools as well as hospitals and communities as places where the virus is likely to spread, and have suggested all primary and high schools in the capital should monitor their students' health very closely.

Earlier today the World Health Organization said that 73 countries now have officially reported 25,288 lab confirmed cases of A(H1N1) swine flu infection, including 139 deaths. About half of the cases are in the United States while most of the deaths are in Mexico.

India reported the first known case of swine flu in the country's capital, New Delhi, last week among its three new cases.

The Indian health authorities said the New Delhi case was a 35-year old man who arrived from New York by plane on Air India last Tuesday and started having symptoms on Thursday. He is now in quarantine after testing positive for A H1N1, according to a report from the Associated Press.

The other two new cases were two men in their 20s who arrived from the US via London, to the southern city of Hyderabad on 31 May. They are also in quarantine.

So far India has reported 10 confirmed cases of swine flu and no deaths.

Sources: CNN, Xinhua, WHO, AP.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
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