Sunday evening the Yunnan provincial hygiene department announced that it has confirmed the province's first case of the A/H1N1 virus – a 17-year-old male in Kunming who reportedly contracted the virus in the US.

According to a hygiene department spokesperson, the patient, who lives in the Think UK residential development on Jiaoling Lu, is in stable condition and under close observation.

The young man, who had been studying in the US, met up with 14 other Kunming friends in Los Angeles on June 6 before heading back to China. That night, he reportedly shared a hotel room with a Shanghai resident who was later confirmed to have fallen ill with the H1N1 virus.

On June 10, the patient flew to Shanghai from Los Angeles, staying one night in Shanghai before flying the next day to Kunming with four classmates. On June 12, the patient came down with a fever, headache and runny nose, after which he was quarantined.

In addition to the confirmed case, 14 other people including the young man's parents and classmates have been quarantined and are under medical observation.

Last week, the World Health Organization declared the H1N1 influenza virus a pandemic, despite the fact that fewer than 200 people worldwide have died from it.