Another 11 students at a northwest China university have been diagnosed with A/H1N1 influenza, bringing the total number of confirmed cases on the campus to 40, the provincial health department said Monday.

Confirmed A/H1N1 cases were first reported at Xi'an University of Arts and Science on Friday. The 40 confirmed cases were all in hospital on Monday, a spokesman with the Shaanxi Provincial Health Department said.

The patients were in stable condition and none of the cases was life-threatening.

Students who had been in close contact with the patients have been put in seven-day quarantine on campus, he said.

The municipal health and education authorities in Xi'an have sent eight work teams to the university to survey and to oversee disease prevention, disinfection, health education and food safety work, the official said.

Classes were suspended at the university on Friday, and will resume only if no new case is confirmed for seven consecutive days.

To date, Shaanxi Province has reported a total of 63 confirmed cases, of whom 21 have recovered and 42 are in hospital.

A/H1N1 flu cases have been on the rise since China's schools began the fall semester last Tuesday.

On Sunday, 27 cases were confirmed at three schools in the southwestern Chongqing Municipality, 67 at four universities in the development zone of Langfang city near Beijing, 10 at a middle school in Sichuan Province, and 35 at three schools in Shandong Province.

A/H1N1 flu outbreaks have also been reported at schools in other regions, including the provinces of Henan, Hunan, Jiangsu, Anhui and Hainan, as well as the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

By last Friday night, 4,415 cases of A/H1N1 flu had been reported on the Chinese mainland, of which 3,577 have recovered.

Globally, the disease has killed about 2,000 people and infected more than 180,000 in more than 170 countries.

(Xinhua News Agency September 7, 2009)