In related news, the AP reports on how aggressive measures to contain the H1N1 virus in China have had minimal success. "Despite initially declaring success, Beijing now acknowledges its swine flu outbreak is much larger than official numbers show," the news service writes, adding, "China's official count of some 63,000 reported illnesses with 53 deaths dwarfs estimates of millions of cases with nearly 4,000 deaths in the United States, a nation with about a third of China's population."

Despite the recent increase in the number of reported H1N1 cases, "China's Health Minister Chen Zhu defended his country's aggressive quarantine policy, telling the AP on Wednesday that the measures helped slow the spread of the virus long enough for China to develop a vaccine, which authorities are now scrambling to administer." The article includes comments from health experts about the failure of measures such as border closures and quarantines to contain the H1N1 virus and skepticism about the total cases of H1N1 reported in China (Cheng, 11/18).  

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