Three more flu cases; government to take precautions with returning students abroad.

Another teacher from the quarantine group has come down with swine flu, making her, according to the Joongang Ilbo, the 20th case reported from the 65-member CDI orientation class. The article also says a 22-year-old (19?) Korean woman returning from Texas voluntarily reported to a health center when she exhibited symptoms of the disease. The Korea Herald says a Korean-American instructor with the group also came down with the flu.

The Joongang Ilbo article continues to say the government will monitor the situation among students returning from studies abroad.

The ministry is taking “preemptive measures” before a flurry of Koreans studying abroad return home to spend summer vacation here, said Chung Eun-gyung, an official in the disease policy department at the Health Ministry, in a press briefing. She said the measures can be considered “an upgrade from existing ones.”

Measures will focus on explaining what Korean students who have been abroad - particularly those who were studying in the United States and Canada - should look for upon returning home, particularly if they become sick. She stressed that a person who either doesn’t submit quarantine forms or makes false statements will be subject to a maximum one year in prison or a fine of up to 5 million won ($3,939).

The ministry will run advertisements in three Korean newspapers and commercials on one radio station for Koreans in the United States during June 1?15 to encourage them to make voluntary reports to health authorities here within seven days after returning. Four radio stations in Korea already started running similar commercials yesterday and Web portal sites will carry banners on the cautions beginning June 1.

Again, I'm not saying there's no cause for concern among that orientation group, or no reason to worry that these teachers may have passed the disease on to others. However, remember their rate of infection is so high is because they were first living together during orientation, then healthy and sick were quarantined together. The foreign teaching community isn't more susceptible to swine flu, nor are foreigners---especially suspiciously Caucasian ones---more likely to transmit the disease than others. There is no reason for a school to interrogate its native speaker about his or her whereabouts or activities, or to tell him or her not to mingle with other foreigners.