China denies flu discrimination

Article:
China denies flu discrimination

Because of one man who tested positive from swine flu all the other passengers of his from flight from Mexico to Shanghai have been punt in quarantine. Not only the flight passengers but also another 70 Mexican citizens are held in quarantine.
The government of China took these drastic measures, because of the covering up the outbreak of the respiratory disease Sars in 2003.
Everyone is treated well but a Mexican ambassador was not allowed to talk or see the quarantined people. A lot of countries criticized China for taking these out of proportions measures, because China has no evidence that all those quarantined people are suffering from the swine flu virus.

My reaction:
I can imagine that China is afraid of an outbreak of the swine flu and if that would happen China will have a big problem, as the population of China is over 1.5 billion people. However I do not know if the measures they have taken so far are out of proportions. You would think that the Chinese Health Department know how to react in such circumstances. On the other hand it is odd that de Chinese government is holding hundreds of people in quarantine without knowing if they are infected by the swine flu. This kind of actions is for an outsider difficult to understand, but I think that they do it because they have everybody best interest at heart. Better communications could reduce panic and overreaction to the swine flu virus. This would therefore maybe decrease hostilities between countries.

www.news.bbc.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8032157.stm