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TAIPEI: Taiwan on Thursday confirmed its second case of H1N1 flu in a student returning from the United States but the health minister said there was unlikely to be a mass outbreak on the island before the end of June.
The 22-year-old woman who studies at a New York university tested positive for A(H1N1) influenza after running a fever upon her arrival after a transit in Hong Kong, Taiwan's Centres for Disease Control (CDC) said.
She was immediately isolated at a hospital near the airport and her symptoms had eased after she was put on anti-flu drugs, CDC spokesman Shih Wen-yi told reporters.
Health authorities were tracking down the other passengers who sat nearest her on the Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong for screening.
The island's first confirmed case was an Australian doctor who arrived by plane from Hong Kong earlier in the week.
Speaking shortly before the new case was announced, Health Minister Yeh Chin-chuan said "more isolated cases may be inevitable" due to frequent travel.
"But a mass local outbreak like Japan is unlikely before the end of June as the health authorities are trying to filter through any possible patients upon their arrivals," he told reporters.
Nearly 300 cases have been confirmed in Japan.
"The real challenge may fall in the winter," said Yeh, a public health expert who returned earlier in the day after attending a meeting of the World Health Assembly in Geneva.
The H1N1 flu virus has claimed 85 lives worldwide with more than 11,000 infections confirmed, the World Health Organisation reported on Thursday. - AFP/de
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