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Taiwan seeks seven passengers on Asian swine flu flight
Taipei (AFP) May 2, 2009 Taiwan was Saturday trying to track down seven people who travelled on to the island after sharing a flight with the Mexican man who became Asia's first confirmed case of swine flu. The seven were among 26 people who had flown from Shanghai to Hong Kong on the same flight as the man, and who later flew on to Taiwan on six different flights, Health Minister Yeh Chin-chuan told reporters. Health authorities previously put the number at 25. "We hope the seven people can call 1922 as soon as possible," Yeh said, referring to a hotline set up by the government as part of efforts to tackle the H1N1 virus. The minister warned that if the seven do not cooperate, and continue to move freely "they could be punished severely." Nineteen of the 26 people had either called the hotline or been found by health officials, Taiwan's Centres for Disease Control said. Yeh said as things stood none of the 19 had shown any symptoms of the disease. The minister renewed his call for calm and tried to reassure the seven people his officials were looking for. "There's no reason be afraid of the H1N1 virus, because it is curable. The disease may be easy to contract but its fatality rate is low. "Sooner or later, we may have our first confirmed cases since there is no way to restrict travel. What is really important is to stop any community infection outbreak," Yeh said. Health authorities have so far cleared 22 people who had reported flu-like symptoms. The island has no confirmed cases of H1N1. Taipei on Saturday issued a travel advisory urging its citizens to protect themselves against infection while visiting Hong Kong or South Korea, which have both reported confirmed cases of swine flu. Hong Kong Friday put a hotel and 300 guests and staff under a seven-day quarantine after the infected Mexican man checked in there after arriving from Shanghai. Thirteen Taiwanese, including a family of seven, were among the quarantined guests, Yeh said. South Korea confirmed its first case Saturday, after a 51-year-old woman who had returned from Mexico last weekend tested positive for the swine flu virus. Taiwan held an exercise at an airport Saturday as part of the island's stepped-up measures against the spread of H1N1. At Sungshan airport, in Taipei City, staff and health workers practised procedures for checking arrivals and, where necessary, admitting them to a designated hospital. "The scenario is that should any arrival return from Mexico with fever he or she would be checked and then rushed to the Hoping Hospital for quarantine," said Shih Wen-yi, spokesman for Taiwan's Centres for Disease Control (CDC). In 2003 an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), forced Hoping Hospital to shut down and quarantine 200 patients and 900 staff. Since then it has been designated as one of the island's chief treatment places in any epidemic, and is equipped with 119 quarantine wards. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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