A Mexican tourist visiting Hong Kong was diagnosed with swine flu yesterday in Asia's first confirmed case of the disease.
Officials ordered a weeklong quarantine of the Metropark Hotel where the 25-year-old man stayed and started tracking down his recent contacts.
The patient, who flew to Hong Kong via Shanghai on China Eastern Airlines flight MU 505, developed a fever after arriving in the territory Thursday afternoon, Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang(曾蔭權) told reporters.
Meanwhile, Mexico started a five-day shutdown of most offices and businesses yesterday to try to halt the spread of a deadly flu strain, and officials said they were encouraged by signs the number of new cases was dropping.
Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said the public hospitals that treat roughly half the country admitted just 46 patients with severe flu symptoms on Thursday, down from 212 patients on April 20.
Mexico, the worst-hit country, has reported 176 deaths from the new strain. Worldwide, 11 countries have confirmed cases of the new strain of the H1N1 virus, with the Netherlands the latest. A further 17 countries were checking possible cases.
The WHO said on Thursday it would call the new virus strain Influenza A (H1N1), not “swine flu,” to appease outraged meat producers since there was no evidence that pigs had the virus or could transmit it to humans.
New confirmed cases were reported in Canada, the US and Europe. Almost all infections outside Mexico have been mild and only a handful of patients have required hospital treatment.
Only one person has died outside Mexico: a toddler from Mexico who traveled to the US.
Worries about the spread of the virus mounted in the US as its H1N1 caseload passed 100, and nearly 300 schools closed in communities across the country. US officials had to spend much of the day reassuring the public it's still safe to fly and ride public transportation after Vice President Joe Biden said he wouldn't recommend it to his family.
“There's not an increased risk there,” said Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“If you have the flu or flu-like symptoms, you shouldn't be getting on an airplane ... but for the general population that's quite fine to do,” he said.
The WHO says it does not know enough about the new strain to say how deadly it is, how far it might spread and how long any potential pandemic may last.
The WHO said yesterday that no meeting of its emergency committee was scheduled, meaning there was no immediate likelihood of the current level 5 alert being raised to a full “phase 6” pandemic alert.
To declare a full-blown pandemic, the WHO would have to be convinced the new virus is spreading in a sustained way among communities in another region besides North America.
Also See: EDITORIAL: The end is nigh, but don't panic
Also See: CDC unveils faster swine flu test
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
RSS