CRI听力: Beijing May See New Cases of A/H1N1 Flu

Anchor:
As of Saturday afternoon, Beijing had reported four confirmed cases of A/H1N1 influenza. Experts for disease control and prevention say the capital may see new imported cases in the near term.

Yang Yong has more.

Reporter: The fourth patient is a 65-year-old Chinese American who flew to Beijing from New York on Thursday. His flight number was CA 982.(www.hXen.com)

The capital's disease control and prevention authority says they have found all 14 people, all Chinese, sitting within three rows of the patient on the plane.

Ten in Beijing were quarantined. The other four, from Shandong, Tianjin, Hunan and Shaanxi, were quarantined in those provinces.

Deng Ying is director of the Beijing municipal centre for disease control and prevention. He says although four cases have been reported in Beijing, the capital won't raise the current level of alert.

"By studying the four imported cases, we found the patients contracted the virus in different countries. Though they developed the flu in the same city, there is little connection among them."

Deng Ying says strict measures have been taken by the municipal government to trace potential cases of the A/H1N1 flu.

"At the capital airport, we keep records of Beijing residents out of some 10,000 passengers on all the inbound flights every day. And then we send the information to community-level medical institutions, asking them to check the health conditions of these people. The medical institutions should report their body temperature to the command centre on a day-to-day basis, so as to lower the risks for disease control and prevention."

Wang Quanyi is an expert with the municipal centre for disease control and prevention. He said given the A/H1N1 flu is highly contagious, it won't be surprising for Beijing to see more imported cases. He has also asked the public to remain calm in the face of this disease.

"I think new imported cases may emerge in the near term. And I couldn't rule out any domestic infection of the virus. The A/H1N1 flu conforms to most of the laws of ordinary influenza. If there aren't any complications, the symptoms won't be serious. And generally speaking, most patients could recover without treatment."

In all, seven confirmed cases of A/H1N1 have been reported on the Chinese mainland. Among them, four patients have been discharged, including one from Beijing.

YY, CRI news.