# 3108
No, it’s not at the end of Lonely street.
This report from the AP.
Tourist with swine flu prompts Hong Kong to quarantine 300 in hotel
Associated Press
Updated: 05/01/2009 12:26:23 PM PDT
A Mexican tourist visiting Hong Kong has become Asia's first confirmed swine flu case, authorities said Friday, as they quarantined about 300 people at a hotel where he stayed and began searching for those he may have contacted.
With memories of 2003's deadly SARS outbreak still fresh, officials ordered the weeklong quarantine and treatment of 200 guests and 100 staff at the Metropark Hotel. The 25-year-old man was isolated at a hospital and was in stable condition Friday.
Health workers wearing full body suits wiped the tables, floor and windows of one of the hotel rooms as guests in other rooms waved to photographers. It wasn't immediately clear if the room was where the patient stayed.
Police officers wearing gloves and masks guarded the building. And later Friday, more than 20 people wearing masks walked out of the hotel and into ambulances and were taken away. Their condition wasn't immediately clear.
Officials also began the task of tracking down people whom the patient came into contact with on his journey to Hong Kong.
It has been just 6 years since the deadly, and traumatic 2003 SARS outbreak roared out of China and claimed 800 lives and infected 8,000 people around the world.
Hong Kong was initially kept in the dark by Beijing about the outbreak, which began in neighboring Guangdong Province, and was especially hard hit.
One can understand, given that experience, why they are reacting with swift, and some might say, drastic measures to try to contain this new flu virus.
Still, it is unlikely that any application of quarantines, or contact tracing, is likely to prevent this new flu virus from gaining a foothold in Hong Kong, or any other city, for very long.
Related Post:
Widget by [ Iptek-4u ]