China's precautions understandable: returned Mexicans

Mexicans who returned home on Wednesday

from quarantines in China expressed understanding of the precautious measures

taken by the Chinese government.

Contemporary artist Roberto Arcaute, who had been living in China since

2007, said that "they (the Chinese authorities) treated me really well."

The measures taken by the Chinese authorities were "just a preventive

measure and by no means discrimination," he said.

"They treated me well, I was in a hotel," said Arcaute, adding that he

had been provided hermetic suits and other sanitary materials.

Arcaute was among 136 Mexicans who had been put into quarantine in

different Chinese cities for possible A/H1N1 flu infections.

The great caution of the Chinese government was due to what they had

experienced in the SARS outbreak in 2003, Marai Lourdes Castaneda, who

returned on the same plane dispatched by the Mexican government, said at a

press conference.

"The fear is understandable after what they have been through," Castaneda

said.

"I wish we (in Mexico) had the same care as the Chinese have in avoiding

infections," said Businessman Alfredo Hakim when talking about his experience

in China.

"We stayed in quarantine for seven days" in a hotel, Hakim said, adding

that the Chinese government had provided them with food and sanitary

materials for their protection.

On May 1, 13 crew members and 166 passengers on board a flight carrying a

Mexican passenger who has been tested positive of the flu were quarantined in

China.