Beijing - China asked World Health Organization experts to help its efforts to prevent the spread of A/H1N1 influenza on Saturday, as officials tried to trace 11 people who travelled on the same flight as an infected Mexican man. The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention asked WHO experts to join its team to prevent and control the spread of A/H1N1, state media quoted the health ministry as saying.
The Chinese team also plans to hold regular meetings with WHO on technical issues, and will cooperate with the WHO to "give the public the latest and most accurate information" about A/H1N1, the ministry said in a statement.
It said Hans Troedsson, the WHO's representative in China, had "expressed appreciation of China's preparations" for handling possible outbreaks and promised to share A/H1N1 virus samples with China.
In a separate statement, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said China had informed Mexico, the country worst hit in the swine-flu outbreak, that it had suspended flights by Aeromexico to Shanghai
The government plans to arrange a charter flight to collect Chinese passengers in Mexico who were booked on the first cancelled flight to Shanghai on Sunday, the ministry said in a statement.
A 25-year-old Mexican was confirmed to be infected with the virus after he took a second flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong.
Health authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, which borders Hong Kong, are trying to trace 11 of the 41 local people who arrived in Shanghai on the same flight from Mexico as the infected man, state media said.
The health officials had contacted 30 of the 41 passengers and placed them under a seven-day quarantine, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The agency quoted officials as saying China will impose tighter checks on everyone entering the country from an area where A/H1N1 infections were reported.
Passengers from infected areas will be sent through separate landing channels and will have their temperatures checked at least twice by customs staff, it said.
The Mexican man in Hong Kong was the first person confirmed with the swine-flu virus in Asia.
Hong Kong authorities cordoned off the hotel where he stayed and imposed a seven-day quarantine order on other guests.
They are also trying to trace passengers who travelled with him on a China Eastern flight to Hong Kong from Shanghai on Thursday.
The reports did not say how many other passengers had travelled on the same flight from Mexico City to Shanghai.
