By staff reporter Zhu Tao

(Caijing.com.cn) China is closely monitoring the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico and the United States, and is taking precautions to ensure the virus does not penetrate the country’s borders, the Ministry of Health told Caijing on April 26.

Though China has yet to report a case of swine flu, the potential risk of the virus spreading to China is still difficult to assess, and is largely dependent on how well the outbreak is controlled in the U.S and Mexico, Wang Jian, director of the emergency office of the Chinese Center For Disease Control and Prevention, told Caijing.

The center will issue regular updates on precautionary measures, Wang added.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine issued an emergency notice April 24 ordering the strengthening of border controls against swine flu, a respiratory disease of pigs caused by the type A/H1N1 virus that can be passed to humans.

People exhibiting flu-like symptoms, including fever, coughs, body aches, headaches, as well as chills and fatigue, when entering China or within two weeks after returning from flu-affected regions, must report to the local entry-exit inspection and quarantine bureaus.

They will be given a checkup and isolated if they are found to be infected, the administration said.

The Ministry of Health said April 24 that experts were analyzing the virus and China remains vigilant against the threat of a global pandemic.

The World Health Organization declared the same day that the outbreak of swine flu was a “public health emergency of international concern”. The organization has issued a level-three pandemic alert, indicating there have been sporadic cases of the virus in humans, but large-scale human-to-human transmission is yet to occur.

So far, the outbreak has led to the deaths of 103 people in Mexico. The United States has reported 20 cases, and there have also been reports of suspected cases in Canada, the UK and New Zealand.

Full Article in Chinese: http://www.caijing.com.cn/2009-04-26/110153825.html