Another Case of H1N1 Confirmed on Mainland

Guangdong province has confirmed a case of A/H1N1 influenza, China's Ministry of Health said Tuesday.

This is the country's seventh confirmed case of swine flu and the fourth on the mainland. On the same day, the ministry also released details of another suspected case of swine flu in Tibet.

The Guangdong patient is a 59-year-old man from Guangzhou who returned to the mainland on a train from Hong Kong.

The ministry said the man had earlier arrived in Hong Kong on a flight from the US via South Korea.

The suspected case in Tibet involves a 42-year-old Italian woman who entered the country from Nepal, according to the ministry.

She was found to have a fever when crossing the border on May 16. She has been transferred to a local hospital for treatment. The twenty-three foreigners travelling with her are now under medical observation at a local hotel, the ministry said.

Two patients diagnosed with A/H1N1 earlier this month, the first reported cases of the new strain of influenza on the mainland, have recovered and have been discharged from hospital.

A new case involving a Guangdong man returning from the US was also confirmed in Hong Kong on Sunday. This takes the total number of confirmed cases in Hong Kong to three. The first patient, a Mexican man, has since been discharged.

Around the region, AP reports that authorities in Japan have closed down schools in an attempt to slow the spread of the disease as the number of confirmed infections jumped to 170.

According to the latest situation update published on the World Health Organization's (WHO) website yesterday, 40 countries have officially reported 8829 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection. In total there have been 74 fatalities. Most of those infected display only mild symptoms and almost all of the 74 deaths occured in Mexico.