Swine flu: HK quarantines hundreds at hotel

Swine flu: HK quarantines hundreds at hotel
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/01/AR2009050101212.html
By DIKKY SINN and MIN LEE
The Associated Press Saturday, May 2, 2009; 12:49 AM

HONG KONG -- Hundreds of tourists and employees were under quarantine in a downtown Hong Kong hotel Saturday after a Mexican guest tested positive for swine flu. With the outbreak on its doorstep, China suspended direct flights from the Latin American country.
Hours after the first confirmed case in Asia was reported, the continent got its second: Tests showed a South Korean woman also had the disease. (It was confirmed by Lee Jong-koo, chief of the state disease control center of South Korea.) She has been under quarantine since returning earlier this week from Mexico, the epicenter of the disease.
Sixteen people in Mexico and one toddler in the U.S. have died from the disease. (More than 100 deaths have been reported in Mexico on 2nd May, 2009)More than 650 cases have been confirmed worldwide, with 397 in Mexico. Canada, Israel, New Zealand and more than a half-dozen European countries have also confirmed cases.
Though U.S. officials have already begun to express hope the epidemic may fizzle, authorities sprang into action in Hong Kong, where memories of 2003's deadly SARS outbreak are still fresh. Experts fear the disease will be more difficult to contain if it begins to spread through Asia's densely populated countries.
Health workers in white bodysuits patrolled the lobby of Metropark Hotel in Hong Kong early Saturday as guests picked up bottles of water, chocolate milk and bread before returning to their rooms by elevator. About a dozen police officers wearing masks guarded the building, which was cordoned off.
An Australian tourist who spent the night with friends in a Hong Kong suburb returned to the hotel Saturday morning to join the quarantine.
James Parer, 38, told reporters as he entered the hotel that he was not worried because the territory could draw on experience from its battle with SARS, severe acute respiratory disease.
"Hong Kong is the best place this could happen because it should be best prepared," said Parer, who was visiting Hong Kong from Brisbane to attend a trade fair.
During the 2003 SARS outbreak, an infected doctor who checked into a Hong Kong hotel later died, but not before infecting a resident of the Chinese territory and 16 other hotel guests. Those guests spread the virus internationally, which eventually killed more than 770 people, including 299 in Hong Kong.
Officials who did not initially impose quarantine measures during SARS were accused of responding slowly to the public health crisis.
But Kevin Ireland, visiting from India on a business trip, suggested officials were overreacting.
"I would prefer them to be practical, evaluate the risk more thoroughly before taking this stringent measure, but the government has different ways in approaching the issue," the 45-year-old told The Associated Press by phone.