South Korea suspects first human swine flu case
Posted: 28 April 2009 0744 hrs

	Photos  of
	Related News • WHO raises flu alert level, warns no region is safe • Mexico shuts all schools, raises probable flu toll to 149 • Swine flu hits Europe with confirmed cases in Britain, Spain Special Report • Swine Flu Outbreak

SEOUL: South Korea has detected a suspected case of swine flu in a woman just back from a trip to Mexico, a health agency said Tuesday, adding test results are expected within a day.

Three people who returned from Mexico were initially classified as suspected sufferers but two were ruled out after tests and one classified as a possible case, the Centre for Communicative Disease Surveillance and Response said.

"The 51-year-old woman living in Gyeonggi province (surrounding Seoul) has been classified as a suspected case by World Health Organization-designated standards," its director-general Jun Byung-Yool told a press conference.

"Currently, laboratory tests are underway. Test results will be available as early as Wednesday morning."

Jun said the woman was staying at her home in isolation. She had been provided with special masks and had received injections of the Tamiflu treatment.

He said she arrived in Mexico via Los Angeles on April 17 and returned home via the same city on April 26.

"Before taking a flight back home, she was coughing and felt a chill. Upon returning home, she reported to health authorities," he said.

Officials here said 7,000-10,000 people had returned from the United States since April 17, including some whose journeys originated in Mexico.

The Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says it will intensify inspections of inbound travellers.

"Rapid antigen tests will be carried out on inbound travellers who are suffering from fever or symptoms of respiratory illness," the centre said in a statement.

"If confirmed through laboratory tests, patients will immediately be isolated. Travellers to Mexico and the US will be educated on the prevention of swine influenza."

The government has strengthened quarantine measures in pig-farming regions. On Monday it designated swine flu as an infectious livestock disease, allowing culling to be carried out if necessary.

South Korea said it would double its stockpile of Tamiflu and other anti-influenza drugs to a quantity sufficient to treat five million people.

The likely human swine flu death toll in Mexico, the epicentre of the outbreak, now stands at 149, while the WHO has raised its flu pandemic alert level.

The United States has confirmed 44 cases of swine flu but no deaths.

- AFP/yb