A group of students and teachers from my home state, Maryland, have been quarantined in a hotel in China because a passenger on their flight to China was suspected of having the swine flu. “School officials have been told the quarantine will end tomorrow evening, leaving the students one day to tour China before their return flight Sunday.” This is probably pretty disappointing for those kids.
Though the swine flu news seems to have quieted down (temporarily I believe, at least until the winter), China is taking it extremely seriously:
“…throwing several thousand foreigners and Chinese nationals into quarantine facilities for having little more than a cough, runny nose or slight temperature and having been in contact with someone with a suspected case of swine flu. Some public health experts say its aggressive measures to deal with a possible pandemic — devised after China’s slow and secretive response to the deadly SARS virus in 2003 was blamed for spreading the respiratory disease — should serve as a model for other countries. Statistically speaking, China’s efforts have been an amazing success this time around. Of a total of 13,400 confirmed infections worldwide, only 14 have been in China, though nearly a fifth of the world’s population lives within its borders.”