HONG KONG: A 56-year-old woman who returned from San Francisco with minor flu symptoms has been confirmed as the city's tenth human swine flu case.

The woman had flown back to Hong Kong with a runny nose on a Cathay Pacific flight CX 873 along with her husband on Saturday morning, said Thomas Chung Wai-hung, head of the emergency response and information branch of the Centre for Health Protection.

Chung said the patient had not declared her symptom at the airport and had taken the bus A41P to return to her home in Ma On Shan.

The woman had dinner with her husband and her mother at the clubhouse of Villa Athena on Saturday night and had breakfast with her husband in a Ma On Shan eatery the next day, Chung said.

On Monday morning, the couple went to the University MTR station by shuttle bus and then took the train to Mong Kok East MTR station, said Chung.

The pair had breakfast in a restaurant in Yau Ma Tei before the woman took the MTR to go to work in Central, Chung said.

The woman had spent the entire morning at her office before seeking help from Kwong Wah Hospital after lunch, said Chung.

She was confirmed to have contracted the A (H1N1) virus yesterday.

Chung said the woman had put on a face mask on the flight but did not do so when she made journeys on the MTR and on the bus in the city.

He said authorities were now tracing passengers who had sat within three rows either side of row 51 and the colleagues who had close contact with the patient in the office.

But Chung said the government would not track down the passengers who might have shared the same bus or MTR with the patient as it was impossible to do so.

He said the chance of her spreading the virus to the community might not be high.

Chung said the patient at the Princess Margaret Hospital was now in stable condition.

Meanwhile, Director of Health Lam Ping-yan said vaccines against human swine flu should be made available in Hong Kong by the end of this year.

The health chief expected vaccines against A (H1N1) virus would be ready in September at the earliest and could be supplied to Hong Kong by the end of this year after registration.

He said the Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases under the Centre for Health Protection would hold a meeting this week to discuss which age groups should be vaccinated first when the vaccines were ready.

He said the government was discussing with two pharmaceutical firms the price of vaccines and it is still not determined whether authorities would subsidize those who receive vaccinations.

(HK Edition 05/27/2009 page1)