By EDWARD WONG


CHANGGANG, China - Few farmers in this southern village gave much thought to the epidemic that had begun spreading rapidly in the United States early this summer until the authorities sealed its 100 residents off from the outside world for about a week. It turned out that a visitor from California had shown symptoms of the swine flu virus, or H1N1, when he arrived for a funeral.

Quarantines and medical detentions are among the aggressive measures that Chinese officials have taken to slow the transmission of H1N1, which quickly spread worldwide after being diagnosed first in North America.

To protests from around the world, China isolated entire planeloads of people entering the country if anyone on the plane exhibited flulike symptoms. Local authorities canceled school classes at the slightest hint of the disease and ordered students and teachers to stay home. China was virtually alone in taking such harsh measures.

Now, Chinese and foreign health officials say some of those contested measures - more easily adopted by an authoritarian state - may have helped slow the spread of the disease. China has not had to cope with a crush of cases, and it began administering a vaccine for swine flu in early September, the first country to do so.

Foreign officials also say China demonstrated an unusual openness to sharing information about H1N1 with its citizens and other governments, in contrast to its secretive approach to the near pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, a few years ago.

That is not to say China has been spared. On November 10, Health Ministry officials reported an “explosive” growth of H1N1 on the mainland because of the onset of winter, pushing the total number of cases to more than 59,000. At least 30 people have died here after contracting H1N1.

Exact data on the virus is hard to pin down; many more cases are suspected than confirmed, and countries often use different methods to identify cases. Still, the indications in China are much more positive than those in India. Like China, India has more than a billion people, many living in poor, rural conditions, and was exposed to the virus after it had been identified in the West. The Indian Health Ministry has reported 505 deaths.

The United States, where the virus was spreading before it was identified in the spring, has reported more than two million cases and about 4,000 deaths in a population of 300 million.

“I think there were a variety of measures put in place by different countries, and it’s difficult to say what worked best and what didn’t, but China’s has worked very well,” said Dr. Michael O’Leary, the director of the Beijing office of the World Health Organization.

As of August, 56 million people had been screened for flulike symptoms at China’s borders, said Feng Zijian, director of the emergency office of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Mr. Feng said he did not know the number of travelers who had been quarantined. The United States Embassy in Beijing said 2,046 American citizens had been quarantined by the end of October, with 215 testing positive for H1N1.

“If these strict measures had not been taken, and if there had been a sudden outbreak of the disease, there would have been a huge panic among the Chinese population,” Mr. Feng said. “Although there were many criticisms from outside, people should understand China’s considerations.”

But Mr. Feng and Dr. O’Leary also say the social and financial costs of China’s tough measures will have to be evaluated to see whether they were worth the benefits. And it is unclear how decisive those actions were in slowing the transmission of H1N1 - the summer heat in much of China was a critical factor in slowing the spread.

Quarantines of entire school groups from overseas ignited outrage.

In July, a group of 65 students and seven chaperons from St. Mary’s School in Medford, Oregon, was quarantined twice.

“At the time, it seemed extreme, and it seemed restrictive, because I had never experienced an infectious disease outbreak,” said Scott Dewing, director of technology at the school. “Now, looking back and seeing some of the measures that are being taken now in the U.S., the Chinese measures don’t seem so extreme.”


ALY SONG/REUTERS / China was the first country to give H1N1 shots. Visitors arriving from Germany had their temperatures checked.


Li Bibo contributed research from Beijing. Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Hong Kong.