Bucharest: A hotel in the mountain resort of Sinaia has been closed after 40 Romanian and foreign law students meeting for a conference caught swine flu, officials said.
Health State Secretary Adrian Streinu-Cercel said 40 people were hospitalised yesterday at the Matei Bals Institute for Infectious Diseases in Bucharest, suffering from medium to severe forms of the flu.
Streinu-Cercel says the flu was spread by a Portuguese tourist at the hotel who refused to be hospitalised for two days after it was confirmed that she was carrying the illness.
He gave no further details.
The Hotel Sinaia manager, Marian Schwartz, says participants at the conference, which was attended by 260 students, came from 31 European countries.
He said the students had spent a week in Sinaia, some 100 kilometres north of Bucharest.
Sinaia town hall officials said tourist attractions and other places the students visited would be disinfected.
Streinu-Cercel says authorities are trying to identify people the students came in contact with.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, November 02, 2009, 09:14