Mexico at odds with China on flu response

BEIJING, May 4 (UPI) -- China and Mexico are at odds over Beijing's response to swine flu, including quarantining people suspected of exposure to the virus, officials said.

Chinese officials tracked down and quarantined scores of airline passengers after a Mexican man flew into Shanghai from Mexico City and later was hospitalized with a confirmed case of the H1N1 flu, Cybercast News Service reported Monday. Since then, 176 passengers have been confined to hotels in at least seven jurisdictions. Three-hundred guests and staff members at a Hong Kong hotel where the original patient was staying also were confined.

China suspended flights from Mexico to Shanghai and canceled a planned chartered flight that was supposed to pick up 120 Chinese citizens now in Mexico, CNS reported.

Mexico's ambassador in Beijing, Jorge Guajardo, was denied permission to visit a group under quarantine at a hotel in the capital, the Mexican embassy said. Another Mexican diplomat returning from Cambodia to China was pulled aside for testing, Guajardo said.

In a statement, the Mexican embassy said Mexico respects the right of countries to adopt measures to combat the spread of the H1N1 flu, but that the measures must comply with World Health Organization guidelines, and people must be treated with dignity, CNS said.

"The imposition of measures that restrict freedom of movement, such as quarantines or other forms of compulsory isolation … are not compatible with those norms," the statement said.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said the measures didn't discriminate against Mexicans, and asked for calm and objectivity from Mexican officials.