“Driven by ulterior motives, some overseas media have ignored the facts of the epidemic and basic scientific knowledge and deliberately fabricated rumours that this epidemic came from China,” health ministry spokesman Mao Qunan said.
“(They) aim to muddle right and wrong, create disturbances and ruin China’s image,” he said on the ministry’s website.
“We are resolutely opposed to this.” “The reports that are saying that the swine flu epidemic in Mexico originally came from China are groundless,” the agriculture ministry said in a statement.
China rejected the accusations of the media pointing to China as the source of the swine flu outbreak. China said that the allegations were baseless and aimed at tarnishing the nation’s image. “We have not detected in our nation the variation of the swine flu virus that has infected people in North America.”
Recently a number of press reports have said that the swine flu that have killed more than 150 people in Mexico and one in the United States, originated in Asia. Apparently the governor of the Mexican state of Veracruz, Fidel Herrera, has said to the media that the virus began in China.
China has not reported any human cases of swine flu. A group of students in northern China with suspicious symptoms were found to have influenza B, which is common in humans. The health ministry spokesman said China was willing to work with the global community to help stem the spread of swine flu.
“After the swine flu epidemic broke out in the United States, Mexico and other places, the Chinese government placed a lot of importance on this and immediately initiated the emergency prevention system,” Mao said.
“In the process of fighting this epidemic, our nation will maintain close cooperation and make common efforts with the World Health Organization and the governments of nations hit by the outbreak.”
According to the China News Service, China on Wednesday agreed to give Mexico five million dollars in aid to help fight the outbreak.
