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US experts: China's quarantine action understandable
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-07 20:47

LOS ANGELES - Some US experts said on Wednesday that China's strict quarantine measures against foreign travelers from flu-affected countries and regions were "understandable."

Richard Baum, a scholar at the Center for Chinese Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, said the disastrous SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak which occurred in China several years ago, had made Chinese health authorities wary of the A/H1N1 flu virus.

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He said this explained why China took strict measures to quarantine travelers from Mexico in its initial response.

Baum told Xinhua on Wednesday that China's quick response and actions were necessary, though he thought it was a little bit "over-reactive" at the beginning, but that was understandable.

"It is a learning process for the Chinese," Baum said, adding that the quarantine process has now been modified, the policies were more pragmatic and reasonable, and the Chinese health authorities well-informed on what needs to be done.

"We should understand that SARS has made many people very nervous about the A/H1N1 flu virus," Baum said.

He said it was understandable that the Chinese preferred to take the "better safe than sorry" view at the beginning.

He said it was necessary to take precautions but it should be done in a way that would have minimal disruption to the lives of ordinary people.

"I am glad China has modified its policies," he said, adding that it was a "difficult situation to balance, particularly when people did not know how serious the outbreak was."

Clayton Dube, associate director of the US-China Institute at the University of Southern California, said China was right to take necessary measures and to be concerned about the outbreak because the disease had killed more than 40 people around the world.

Dube said it was understandable that China would want to protect the health of not only the Chinese but everybody in China, including Mexicans, Canadians and other foreigners, though he said the quarantine itself could have been handled differently.

World Journal, a leading Chinese-language newspaper in the US, published an editorial on Wednesday, saying that the world should look at China's actions to quarantine travelers from North America with "goodwill."

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