China's Ministry of Health Tuesday said an Italian tourist suspected of having the A/H1N1 flu virus was being treated at a hospital in southwestern Tibet Autonomous Region.
The 42-year-old female, whose name was not disclosed by the ministry, was "in a stable condition" at a hospital in Zham town, bordering Nepal. A total of 23 foreign nationals who traveled with her were quarantined at a local hotel, said the ministry.
The woman flew to Nepal from Italy on May 12. Three days later she developed a sore throat, stuffy nose and sweating. She had a fever with a body temperature of 38.5 degrees Celsius at entry into Tibet at Zham on Saturday. She was then sent to the hospital.
Tibet's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted laboratory tests Monday, and the result was A/H1N1 positive. The ministry said the national CDC will double-check the test.
If confirmed, the woman will be the fifth A/H1N1 flu patient and the first foreign patient found on the Chinese mainland since the first case was reported on May 11.
A taskforce with six experts from the ministry has arrived in Lhasa and headed for the China-Nepal border.
Earlier on Tuesday, the health ministry confirmed a man in southern Guangdong Province, who recently returned from a tour of the United States and Canada, tested positive for the A/H1N1 flu.
The man, surnamed Yang, flew to Hong Kong via the Republic of Korea. He then took a train to Guangdong on Friday.
His temperature had returned to a normal level of 36.6 degrees Celsius as of Monday and his symptoms of a sore throat and cough had abated, said Yin Zhibiao, vice president with the No. 8 People's Hospital where Yang has been treated.
Among 93 others who had close contact with the patient, 75 had been found and quarantined, while doctors are looking for the rest 18, said Zhang Yonghui, director of the Guangdong provincial center for disease control and prevention.
Guangdong is on high alert to the flu. Another 110 hospitals in the province were designated for treatment of the disease.
Of the other three cases, the patients in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, and in Jinan, Shandong Province, have been discharged from hospital following treatment.
The patient in Beijing, an 18-year-old woman surnamed Liu, will be discharged from hospital the coming weekend if all test results remain normal in the next three days, the municipal health bureau announced Tuesday.
