Swine flu from a Chinese perspective...

Let me tell you, China is having a field day with the swine flu pandemic. After the SARS epidemic which originated in Asia, they are thrilled to be dealing with a virus that didn't originate in this country! Now, it is a well known fact around town there that during SARS, there were several cases in the Shanghai; however, to this day the government denies that there were more than a handful of cases. Apparently, rumor has it that they were hiding the patients in an old government hospital. So, it is no surprise to anyone that the only confirmed cases of swine flu here in mainland China have ONLY infected foreigners or Chinese citizens who flew directly back to China from the US or Canada. I have yet to hear of a case where a chinese person infected another chinese person on the mainland.


Now, in China's defense of this claim, they have put some interesting precautions in place. For instance, if you enter any type of clinic or hospital, there is a masked nurse at the door to check your temperature. If you have a fever, you are directed out of the hospital and straight to a local "fever center" where you will be examined and tested for the swine flu. While I don't relish the fact of having to go to a government run fever center instead of my western style hospital, it does make sense to keep it under control and it's an easy way for the government to monitor the situation. Thumbs up for this one (although I pray the kids don't develop a fever)!


The next precaution that has been enacted is that all international flights coming into the country are boarded by men in hazmat suits upon landing. They then use a fever detecting ray gun and check everyone on board. Here's the bummer though- if you have a fever, you are automatically quarantined as are all the people sitting 5 rows ahead and behind you. Now, I am not clear on this but I've heard stories of the feverish person coming back with a negative swine flu test and yet they've kept the foreigners in quarantine for up to 5 days anyway. If the feverish person tests positive for swine flu, then everyone around is kept in quarantine up to 7 days. My issue with this methodology is that they don't account for all the people in the airport, the airplane bathrooms, and the flight attendants that came in contact with the sick person. And now the US State department is warning people that China seems to be randomly quarantining foreigners. I am already super nervous about our trip back to China after our summer vacation and just hoping that nobody around us is sick! Can you imagine what it's like to quarantine two kids under the age of 5?


Check out the picture Sev took on his cell phone camera on his way back from Taiwan:


By the way, we are heading to the US in early July so I am not sure how much more blogging I will get to before & during the trip. I'll try to send some updates but if I don't get to it then I promise to return after summer vacation! Thanks for reading!