HK hospital discharges Mexican, China quarantines 7
HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Mexican traveler confirmed as Hong Kong's first and only case of the new flu strain has been discharged from hospital, a spokeswoman said on Saturday.
The unidentified man had been in hospital for a week suffering from the H1N1 flu. Authorities confined almost 300 guests and staff in a Hong Kong hotel where the man had stayed.
"Doctors confirmed he's fit ... he was stable and OK to leave the hospital," said Tammy Mak, a spokeswoman for Hong Kong's Princess Margaret Hospital.
"He wanted some privacy," said Mak, adding Mexican consulate staff had met him on his release. The 25-year-old man had arrived in Hong Kong via Shanghai.
China, meanwhile, put seven people who had been exposed to three Japanese passengers diagnosed with the H1N1 flu in quarantine, the official Xinhua news agency quoted the government as saying.
Japan announced on Saturday its first confirmed cases of the flu, a teacher and two students who had spent time in Canada.
The seven quarantined had arrived in Shanghai and Beijing on Friday night, China's health ministry was quoted as saying. It told local health departments to track down the passengers.
The new H1N1 flu has killed its first patient in Canada, making it the third country after Mexico and the United States to report a death from the virus that has sickened more than 3,400 people in 29 countries.
On Friday, Hong Kong authorities freed almost 300 people held in quarantine at a city hotel for the past week in an attempt to contain the flu.
Although some have ridiculed Hong Kong's quarantine decision as extreme, many public health experts backed the move, saying drastic measures were needed to stop the spread of the disease.
Health Minister York Chow told a radio programme on Saturday Hong Kong faced "a prolonged battle" against the virus and that authorities would fine-tune the city's containment policies.
China on Thursday lifted its seven-day quarantine for all 128 passengers who arrived in Shanghai on the same flight as the infected Mexican.
(Reporting by James Pomfret, Nerilyn Tenorio and Jacqueline Wong)
