China Quarantines Mexicans

Beijing, Fearing Flu, Locks Down Dozens of Travelers -- Offers Little Information or Medical Help

ANDREW BROWNE

BEIJING -- The A/H1N1 flu outbreak is leading to a potential diplomatic row between China and Mexico, as Chinese health authorities round up and quarantine scores of Mexicans -- only one of whom is thus far reported to be sick -- as they fly in on business and holiday trips.

Mexico's foreign minister said Mexican citizens with no signs of infection had been isolated in "unacceptable conditions" in China. Patricia Espinosa told a news conference Saturday that such measures were "discriminatory and ungrounded" and that the government is advising Mexicans to stay away from China.

She also criticized four Latin American countries -- Argentina, Peru, Ecuador and Cuba -- for suspending flights coming from Mexico against the recommendations of the World Health Organization.

More than 70 Mexicans are in isolation around China, according to Mexican officials, and that number is rising as Mexican travelers call in to their embassy to report their plight.

China has been rounding up all travelers aboard an AeroMexico flight from Mexico that arrived on Thursday in Shanghai with a 25-year-old Mexican man now ill with human swine flu in Hong Kong.

That man is the only known Mexican sufferer in China to date. However, Mexicans on other flights say they have been singled out for harsh treatment.

Gustavo Carrillo, a 36-year-old general manager of a Mexican technology company in China who lives in Beijing with his wife and three sons, was taken off his Continental Airlines plane on Saturday and rushed into quarantine at a Beijing hotel. He had traveled to the U.S. from China on a business trip and hadn't visited Mexico.

Mr. Carrillo said health officials took the temperatures of other passengers after the plane landed, but didn't check his after they saw his Mexican passport. Instead, they led him down the aisle past gawking passengers. "It was embarrassing and humiliating," he said. "It's just pure discrimination."

Mexicans who were on the flight to Shanghai with the 25-year-old flu victim complain about how China has enforced its quarantine, offering little information and only the most basic medical testing. Among them is a family of five, including three young children, who transited to Beijing. They were then roused from their hotel room in the Chinese capital in the early hours of Saturday and whisked to an infectious diseases hospital. There, according to the father, Carlos Doormann, AeroMéxico's finance director, they were isolated in a room with bloodstained sheets and what appeared to be mucus smeared on the walls.

"I'm frustrated and sad," said Mr. Doormann, whose family has since been moved to the nearby Guo Men Hotel on the outskirts of the Chinese capital, where they are in quarantine along with five other Mexican nationals, including Mr. Carrillo.

According to accounts from Mexicans in the hotel, Mexican travelers arriving on various flights from Mexico and the U.S. were singled out by health officials who boarded their aircraft wearing white protective suits, masks and rubber gloves. They led away Mexican passport holders, while non-Mexicans watched from their seats.

Several said that Chinese television camera crews and photographers surprised them at the doors of their aircraft as they emerged. They said the filming continued through the windows of an isolation ward at the Beijing Ditan infectious diseases hospital.

"We felt like we were in a zoo," said Angel Yamil Silum, a 27-year-old business student, who arrived in Beijing with his girlfriend on Saturday as transit passengers en route to Bangkok for a holiday and ended up at Ditan and then the Guo Men Hotel.

Chinese authorities allowed Mexico's ambassador to China, Jorge Guajardo, to enter the hotel on Sunday but refused him permission to see the quarantined Mexicans or to call up to their rooms, Mexican officials said. The embassy is shuttling soft drinks, pizzas, chips and other Western food into the hotel along with CDs, toys for the children and other entertainment.

Chinese officials deny that Mexicans are being unfairly targeted. "There is no discrimination at all," said Zhang Jianshu, head of the news office at the Beijing Health Bureau. "We treat all people the same," he said, adding that there are many Chinese passengers in isolation. He said the measures are in line with the requirements of the World Health Organization.

The spokesman for China's ministry of health, Mao Qun'an, said he sympathized with the Mexicans. "We totally understand their feelings," he said. He added: "The isolation is not only good for their health, but is also good for the public. It's not discrimination at all."

China's government was widely blamed for a slow and ineffective initial response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003 and appears eager to demonstrate to the Chinese public that it is taking the threat more seriously this time.

The Doormann family's ordeal began at 2:00 a.m. on Saturday when a Spanish-speaking woman, who identified herself as a Chinese health official, called their hotel room and instructed the family to "pack immediately and go to the hospital," Mr. Doormann said.

"I said, 'can't we wait? I have three little kids'," Mr. Doormann recalled. The children are ages 8, 6 and 5. But at 4:30 a.m. they were whisked through the dark streets of Beijing to Ditan, a recently opened showcase medical facility. Apart from the dirty sheets and walls of their room, Mr. Doormann said the bathroom had no soap or toilet paper.

After the personal intervention of Ambassador Guajardo, the family was moved to the Guo Men Hotel. Like their fellow Mexican guests, they have had no contact with Chinese government officials, except health workers, and have no idea how long they will have to stay. "We're held hostage here," said Mr. Doormann.

The Guo Men Hotel is a sprawling complex of aging buildings with green-tiled roofs surrounded by lawns and trees. Police and uniformed guards patrol the grounds. Twice each day, nurses leave thermometers outside the Mexicans' rooms. No other medical testing is carried out. The quarantined guests are allowed into the hotel grounds, although the hotel has "recommended" they stay in their rooms.

Myrna Elisa Berlanga Morales, a 31-year-old administrative assistant from Mexico City, arrived in Beijing on the Continental flight on Saturday with two American friends. She asked why Chinese consular officials in Mexico issued her and other Mexicans visas when they were heading straight into quarantine in China. "They could have warned me," she said.

Her two friends had told her that her holiday in China "would be the most unforgettable 15 days of my life". She added: "Now I believe them."