TAIPEI: Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has confirmed that 17 of 23 passengers on board a flight which carried an H1N1 flu sufferer from the mainland did not contract the new influenza strain. The flight traveled from Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Tokyo before flying to Taiwan May 8.

CDC Deputy Director-General Shih Wen-yi announced the findings yesterday afternoon, adding test results for two other passengers are pending.

Of the remaining four passengers, two transferred to flights headed for Cambodia and the remaining two have yet to be located, said Shih, who is also the spokesman for the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC). The 19 passengers will take preventive anti-virus medication for 10 days as a precaution, he added.

The 23 passengers along with the mainland traveler from Sichuan province boarded Northwest Airlines flight NW019 bound for Tokyo in Saint Paul, Minnesota on May 7. After arriving at Japan's Narita International Airport, the 23 passengers transferred to flight NW021 to Taiwan the same day.

According to the seating records of flight NW019, four of the 23 passengers aboard the flight were seated within three rows of the Sichuan patient, the Central Epidemic Command Center said Monday. The man tested positive as the mainland's first case of swine flu.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 05/13/2009 page1)