An outbreak of A/H1N1 flu was reported at a middle school in northwest China's Gansu Province as 26 students had been confirmed to be sickened as of Sunday afternoon.

The first patient at the Lanzhou Chenggong School, a private boarding school in Gansu's capital city Lanzhou, was confirmed Friday, said an official from the provincial health department.

All the 26 patients have been sent to hospital and quarantined. Those who had close contact with them were put under observation and some classes have been suspended.

There are more than 2,000 students and teachers in the school.

The flu outbreak in Gansu was revealed one day after a high school in Xing'an County, central China's Henan Province, was required to suspend all classes starting from Saturday due to a flu outbreak.

Eighty people at the No. 3 Senior High School of Xing'an were confirmed to have contracted the A/H1N1 flu as of Sunday afternoon, the Henan provincial health department said.

The patients were sent to four hospitals in the county and were in stable conditions, said Zhou Yong, a spokesman for the department.

Those who had close contact with the confirmed cases had been required to stay home for observation.

The epidemic situation surfaced on Thursday afternoon when the People's Hospital of Xin'an County received a A/H1N1 flu patient from the school.

The outbreak was immediately reported to the Health Bureau of Luoyang City, which has dispatched a medical squad of 60 professionals to the school.

The school has 41 classes and 2,768 students in total.

A thorough disinfection has been done in the school during the recess.

(Xinhua News Agency August 31, 2009)