He took the flight OZ221 at 00:30 PM on Saturday from New York to Incheon City in the Republic of Korea, and took OZ369 at 7:70 AM on Sunday from Incheon to Guangzhou, the bureau said.

He developed flu symptoms since Sunday and went to hospital on Wednesday.

He had been tested positive to A/H1N1 by the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and still needs a final check from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The provincial health authorities been seeking for people who had close contact with the patient.

The 15 confirmed cases involve eight provinces and municipalities: five in Beijing, two each in Guangdong, Fujian, and Shanghai, and one each in Hunan, Shandong, Sichuan and Zhejiang.

The two suspected cases are in Shanghai and Guangdong.

As of Thursday, seven confirmed cases had been discharged from hospitals, which included a case in Fujian.

The Fujian case, also China's youngest flu patient, a 22-month-old baby girl, was discharged from a hospital in east China's Fujian Province Thursday, the provincial health bureau said.

The girl left the Fuzhou Pulmonary Hospital accompanied by her grandmother with the approval of the provincial health bureau.

Zeng Guang, chief expert with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, warned on Thursday that as the confirmed cases were increasing, the possibility of domestic infection of the second generation A/H1N1 influenza virus was rising.

Zeng said the public should not panic since good personal hygienic habit could effectively prevent the infection, in addition to the government preventive measures.

(Xinhua News Agency May 29, 2009)