Swine flu patients without severe symptoms would from now be treated at home, the Shanghai Health Bureau said on Thursday as it released a revised prevention and control policy.

Those in a critical condition would still be kept in designated hospitals under quarantine and treatment.

Patients from other countries or provinces without local residence also can be treated at designated hospitals.

Home treatment would be directed by community hospital doctors taught proper measures to prevent the virus spreading among family members, health officials said.

The revised policy was in line with the present epidemic situation and orders from the Ministry of Health, the bureau said. The focus would be on:

Reducing second-generation patients;

Preventing community cross-infections; and

Enhancing treatment to patients in a critical condition.

According to the bureau notice, all people with close contact to swine flu patients are now allowed to stay at home for observation.

It urged city schools and kindergartens to strictly carry out proper measures and take immediate action whenever detecting a classroom or community outbreak.

The 31 local hospitals designated as nation or city-level flu-inspection spots would continue to do case registrations, analysis and reporting, the bureau said.

The Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center and the Children's Hospital of Fudan University are the city's key designated hospitals, while another five big hospitals are backups. Each district has one hospital as a district-level backup for patient treatment.

The 24-hour fever clinics in hospitals would continue, with at-risk patients isolated, the bureau said.

The notice said all city and district-level hospitals should streamline infection control.

It also said district governments should arrange seasonal flu vaccinations for key people like medical staff, the elderly and children before the end of November.

The bureau yesterday reported six new swine flu cases, all of whom were in a stable condition.

This brings the city total so far to 209. Of these, 167 have recovered and left hospitals.

(Shanghai Daily July 10, 2009)