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| Medical staff wearing protective gear and masks are seen at the Metro Park Hotel in Hong Kong Friday, May 1, 2009 to prevent the possible spread of swine flu. A Mexican tourist visiting Hong Kong was diagnosed with swine flu Friday in Asia's first confirmed case of the disease. |
HONG KONG (AP) -- 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.
The patient had flown to Hong Kong via Shanghai on China Eastern Airlines flight MU 505 and developed a fever after arriving in the territory Thursday afternoon, Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang told reporters.
The Mexican tourist's diagnosis was confirmed by Hong Kong's Health Department and the University of Hong Kong, Tsang said.
Officials want to track down the 140 other passengers on the flight, paying special attention to passengers who sat near him, and urged the taxi drivers who drove him to contact health officials, Secretary for Food and Health York Chow told reporters.
The patient, who was traveling with two others, took taxis from Hong Kong's airport to his hotel and from the hotel to the hospital, but did not venture out otherwise, Chow said.
The two others who were traveling with the Mexican and a friend he came into contact with during his stay have also been isolated in a hospital but have not shown symptoms of illness, Chow said.
As a precaution, the government will treat the hotel's guests with the antiviral drug Tamiflu, Chow said. The hotel has about 200 guests and 100 staff, Director of Health Lam Ping-yan said.
In contrast to its tough measures Friday, the Hong Kong government was accused of responding slowly when severe acute respiratory syndrome spread in 2003 from southern China.
A infected doctor who checked into a Hong Kong hotel later died, but not before infecting a Hong Kong resident and 16 other hotel guests. Those guests spread the virus internationally. SARS eventually killed more than 770 people, including 299 in Hong Kong.
"Given the current situation, I'd rather err on the side of caution than miss the opportunity to contain the disease," Tsang said.
But the Hong Kong leader also urged calm, saying that all public activities would proceed as normal.
Even before the swine flu case emerged, Hong Kong officials had already stepped up precautions, screening visitors for fever and ordering air travelers to fill out health declaration forms.
The government also launched a citywide cleanup. Public toilets are being cleaned every two hours and escalators in wet markets are wiped down every hour.
While South Korea has reported three probable cases of swine flu, the Hong Kong case is the first confirmed in Asia, where governments have been stepping up precautions to prevent its spread from other parts of the world.
In the Pacific, New Zealand has reported four lab-confirmed swine flu cases and 12 other probable cases. Most of the deaths from the swine flu have been in Mexico, while a toddler has died in the United States. More than a dozen countries have confirmed cases.
