Hong Kong - Hong Kong's youngest swine flu patients, an 18-month-old girl and her four-year-old brother, were Tuesday being treated in a hospital isolation ward. The siblings fell ill after arriving home on Sunday afternoon from a holiday in the US with their parents and were taken to hospital on Monday where they were confirmed as having swine flu.
The cases, which bring to nine the number of swine flu cases in the city of 7 million, has heightened fears of a community outbreak in Hong Kong. All cases so far have been imported from North America.
Health officials were Tuesday trying to trace taxi drivers who took the children to their home after their flight and around 50 people who sat close to them on the flight from New York.
The Hong Kong government has appealed to people returning to Hong Kong from the US not to travel unless they are healthy and to wear face masks and alert cabin crew if they feel ill while flying.
The first Hong Kong swine flu case was confirmed in a Mexican visitor at the beginning of May, leading to a seven-day quarantine for 300 guests and staff in the hotel where he stayed.
Quarantine measures have since been eased in the city which has strict anti-virus measures since the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS outbreak which killed 299 and infected 1,799.
