Hong Kong reports first confirmed flu case, quarantines hotel

The first confirmed case of swine flu in Asia was reported on Friday after a Mexican man who had travelled to Hong Kong via Shanghai tested positive for the virus.
Authorities in Hong Kong ordered a week long quarantine of a Hotel after lab tests confirmed that a 25-year-old visitor from Mexico who arrived from Shanghai had the disease. The traveler and his two companions are put under observation, although his companions didn't show any symptoms of the deadly disease.The man had arrived at the Hotel on Thursday afternoon.

Donald Tsang,the chief executive of Hong Kong said:

I ask that the Hong Kong people not be afraid — the government has the fortitude to effectively contain the virus before it spreads.

Hong Kong case is the first confirmed case of swine flu in Asia,although South Korea had reported three probable cases of the disease.

Hong Kong was severely hit by the SARS virus in 2003, with 300 deaths reported in the city alone. SARS had killed more than 900 all over the world.So Hong Kong is taking no chances with the new virus.It has stockpiled Tamiflu vaccines equal to three times its population, the highest in the world.

Meanwhile, China decided to suspend flights from Mexico to Shanghai after the confirmation of swine flu in Hong Kong .It will send a charter plane to Mexico to collect Chinese passengers who had planned to fly to Shanghai.