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Beijing

Flu scare: China got its first reported case of swine flu this week, sparking a vigorous campaign by health officials to contain the illness. Within 24 hours of the diagnosis, officials identified and quarantined hundreds of people who’d had contact with the patient, who recently traveled from Minnesota to Chengdu in southwestern China. Health officials said such extreme measures were necessary to prevent a mixing of swine flu with the avian flu, which is fairly common in China. Avian flu is often deadly but hard to transmit to humans; swine flu is usually benign but highly contagious. If the two strains combined, the resulting “super flu” could be both deadly and contagious. There have now been nearly 4,700 confirmed cases of swine flu in 30 countries, including more than 2,500 in the U.S. and 1,600 in Mexico.

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