Local Students Quarantined Due To H1N1

A swine flu scare has left 22 students on a cultural trip to China quarantined.

They are teenagers from Maryland high schools who are taking part in a program sponsored by the Confucius Institute at the University of Maryland. When the students left on the trip last week, one of them had a fever and neglected to mention it to anyone, according to the Institute's executive director.

Alan Cheung says the Chinese government took his temperature at the airport and he was quarantined after he tested positive for the H1N1 virus. Others in the group developed symptoms.

In all, eight were diagnosed with swine flu and are being treated at four hospitals.

Three of the students on the tour are from Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda. The school's principal says one of those students has swine flu. So does one student who takes Chinese at the National Cathedral School in D.C.

Hospitalized students are expected to be discharged soon, and taken to a five-star hotel, with the other students in their group.

Teenagers from the Maryland Juniors Volleyball Club were released Monday after being quarantined in a hotel after exposure to someone with swine flu.