China prepares to release some from flu quarantine

The group of 25 students and a professor from a Canadian university had been under "observation" at a hotel in the northeastern Chinese city of Changchun since the weekend but were released Wednesday instead of Friday because they were healthy, an official said.

China has been accused in the past of not acting quickly enough to combat the spread of diseases, especially the 2003 global outbreak of SARS. Chastened by that experience, and subsequent threats from avian flu, the government this time has acted quickly and decisively to block an outbreak, but some of its measures have been criticized as unnecessary.

The decision to release the students was made following a suggestion by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Lin Ji, deputy director of the general office of the Jilin provincial health department, told The Associated Press.

"After knowing the health condition of the students, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggested this morning that we release them early," Lin said.

The move comes after Canada sought an explanation from China for placing the students under medical surveillance after they arrived in Changchun Saturday even though none exhibited symptoms of the virus.

"We are not aware of any medical risk factors which would have supported the decision," Canadian foreign affairs department spokesman Andre Lemay said. Canada has 140 confirmed cases of swine flu.

When asked by reporters about the World Health Organization's position on China's quarantine measures, the WHO's flu chief said Tuesday the organization was asking some countries to justify their disease control measures.

"One of the things that we are doing with these countries is contacting them to ask them about the actions being taken and also about the public health justification for those actions," Keiji Fukuda said.

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