China defends 'aggressive' quarantine of flu symptom travellers

The Chinese health minister has defended the way in which his country is quarantining travellers and gap year students who are displaying flu-like symptoms.

Chen Zhu told the Associated Press that China is vaccinating 1.5 million people each day against swine flu, as they attempt to immunise nearly seven per cent of inhabitants by the end of the year.

"With initial efforts of containment, actually we not only reduced the impact of the first wave to China, but we also won time for us to prepare the vaccine," Chen said during the Havana meeting of the Global Forum for Health Research.

After the initial swine flu outbreak in Mexico last spring, China put the country's visitors in week-long quarantines, while also isolating entire plane-loads of international visitors if someone on board experienced flu-like symptoms.

Advice given to gap year students by the Foreign Office stated that they should not travel abroad until any symptoms they are experiencing have disappeared.

For more information on gap year planning.

( Last Updated: 2009-11-19 16:47:45)