400 Chinese students hospitalized with unknown flu,only several dozens remained hospitalised

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AFX News Limited

400 Chinese students hospitalized with unknown flu

04.02.2006, 08:52 AM

BEIJING (AFX) - Over 400 students at a university in central China's

Henan province were hospitalized with high fevers linked to an unknown

flu virus, state press and a school official said.

The outbreak began on March 26 when 22 students were hospitalized with

high fevers, Xinhua news agency said.

The next day the number of sick students at the Henan University of

Science and Technology in Luoyang city rose to 88, and on March 28 there

were 208 sick students in the university's infirmary, it said.

'There were over 400 students that became feverish with the flu,' a

university official who declined to be named told Agence France-Presse

when contacted by phone.

He refused to detail what type of flu it was or how the outbreak had

succeeded in infecting so many students.

Local health officials were currently trying to identify the flu strain,

Xinhua said.

The temperatures of some of the students reached 39.6 degrees celsius,

it said.

The sick students were quarantined while school officials, under

directions from provincial health authorities, cancelled classes and

began disinfecting the university's 2,000 dormitory rooms, dining halls

and classrooms, it said.

Most students were only hospitalized for about three days and released,

the report said, adding that only several dozen students remained

hospitalized as of today.