Hotel workers wearing gloves as a precaution against H1N1 carry a cart loaded with foods to a sealed-off hotel where travelers are being held under quarantine in Beijing, China, Monday, May 4, 2009. (AP / Andy Wong

Ohmy. News that 25 Canadian students have been quarantined in China. The students, on language exchange from the University of Montreal, were pulled aside after they landed in the city of 长春 Changchun, in the north-east province of Jilin. They have been placed in quarantine – with internet access – in a hotel where they are the only guests.

The Canadians seem to be facing the same kind of “discrimination” the Mexicans went through earlier this week. Forced into quarantine because there are cases of the H1N1 virus (aka swine flu) in their home countries. These Canadians have not been to Mexico and aren’t showing any symptoms of the sickness. But there have been cases of H1N1 in the eastern and western provinces (not in Quebec where the students are from) of Canada where there are 142 confirmed cases of the virus.

This news comes just as a plane arrived in Shanghai on Tuesday to pick up the dozens of Mexicans who had been forced into quarantined earlier in the week. Forty-three Mexicans, none showing symptoms of the H1N1 flu, were confined in hotels and hospitals across the country.

In recent days, stories about China’s measures to pre-emptively stop the spread of the virus have highlighted tensions between Mexican and Chinese politicians. Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa accused China of discrimination.

Only one Mexican was found to have the H1N1 flu: a 25-year-old man who is now quarantined in a Hong Kong hotel — trapping another 300 people, guests and staff at the hotel. Apparently, they’re getting more than just internet access — Godiva chocolates
and fruits delivered daily, according to the WSJ .

But Mexicans on other flights say they have been singled out and mistreated. According to some accounts told to the Wall Street Journal, Mexican travelers arriving on various flights from Mexico and the U.S. were singled out by health officials who boarded the aircraft wearing white protective suits, masks and rubber gloves. According to the travelers, those with Mexican passport holders were led away,with little explanation, and placed in less than sanitary hospitals. (Now whether this is this true or not, I don’t know. Tensions are running high and things sometimes can be exaggerated)

China says isolation is necessary and a lawful procedure.

Given the very fast and very devastating spread of SARS in 2003 — are these quarantines necessary? About 300 people died in Hong Kong and 1,755 got sick. Is China just trying to save lives and prevent a pandemic? 

I think it’s a good precaution. It sucks to have your vacation/study tour ruined, or have your life put on hold for a week or so, but viruses can spread like wildfire, especially in a densely populated place like China. If Chinese medical officials are being rough with the quarantined bunch and not providing much explanation to those taken off the planes, then that needs to be fixed. Some sensitivity and a bunch of translators would help. Otherwise, let China be responsible. They’re not trying to curb civil liberties here. They’re trying to potentially save lives.

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ADDENDUM:

5/5/09, 10:54 pm

Not to make like of being in quarantine and all… But a friend of mine just shared this article in the New York Times from 2003. It’s pretty funny.

He had just returned home to the USA from China after a short study abroad program when he and four other schoolmates were forced into quarantine….in a Dean’s (college-owned) red three-bedroom home complete with internet, food and all the porn I mean movies 20-year-old boys could watch!!!! The Dean and his wife moved into the nearby motel.

“We didn’t want to treat these students like prisoners, and they really do feel pretty oppressed,” said Mark Govoni, the dean of students who volunteered his home. “We learned that, short of food and water, it’s the Internet that is the next and most essential thing in the world.”

…Unable to concentrate on their assignments – they have three short papers due May 14 and 24 – the five quarantined students stared endlessly at movies. They watched “Gladiator,” “Ben-Hur,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “The Matrix.”

Luke Felkey, a junior from Bozeman, Mont., took the helm in the kitchen, frying up tofu squares with pineapple when supplies dwindled. … They experimented with the dean’s croquet set in the yard…

“When you’re confined to a small space, more things become interesting,” said Charlie Carstens, one of the students in quarantine.

Apparently, when neighbors and area residents found out five boys were locked down in quarantine in their hood, they wrote outraged letters to newspapers about potentially infected people being allowed back in town. Someone threw eggs at Mr. Govoni’s house.

“We were more scared of the townies burning our house down while we were inside than we were of getting SARS,” Mr. Carstens said.