Quarantines

Asian pears, like many fruits, are available year-round from storage and imports. But they are really at their best during the heat of late summer and early fall, when their delicate flavor is freshest and a juicy, crunchy fruit straight from the refrigerator is most refreshing. Even though they're often marketed as "apple pears" — which seems plausible, since they're generally round and are eaten firm and crunchy like apples — Asian pears are not hybrids at all, but belong to pear species that are native to Asia, most often Pyrus pyrifolia , and distinct from the European pear, P. communis . Asian pear varieties differ considerably in texture, flavor and season.

A month after the discovery of Asian citrus psyllids in Santa Ana and Echo Park, state and county plant health authorities are scrambling to implement new regulations for citrus growers who sell at farmers markets in affected areas. The measures are designed to contain the psyllid, a tiny insect that could transmit huanglongbing , a bacterial disease deadly to citrus trees; the disease has not yet appeared in California but has devastated groves in Florida and around the world.

Cram college students into close quarters -- the shared restrooms, the group dining, the TV lounges where a steamy bag of microwave popcorn becomes communal property -- and dorm living can suddenly become a daily exercise in dodging illness. With what is shaping up to be an unusually difficult influenza season ahead, university student housing and health officials are launching extraordinary measures aimed at keeping dorm dwellers healthy in their homes-away-from-home. At UC Irvine, students moving into residence halls later this month will receive colorful doorknob hangers to post if they contract the flu, warning visitors to steer clear.

Orange County men's jail will remain closed today as part of a continuing, temporary quarantine. The closure was ordered after five inmates were infected with swine flu last week and more were diagnosed over the weekend, officials said. Three inmates were diagnosed with the H1N1 virus Thursday, and two more on Friday. Those cases prompted the jail's quarantine at 6 p.m. Friday, said Orange County sheriff's spokesman John McDonald.

When I arrived in China late last month, the hazmat-suited public officials who met my plane had the same question for each passenger: "Have you had contact with pigs?" The officials took our temperatures, and then we were free to pass through customs and go on our way. As a physician who had come to Shanghai to lecture at a Chinese medical school, I found it interesting to witness firsthand China's public health response to the H1N1 virus.

Chinese authorities tracked down Westwood resident Mike Su recently at a networking banquet in Beijing. They forced him to pack his bags, then whisked him away to a budget hotel on the edge of the city where they detained him for a week. Su's crime? On his flight from Los Angeles, the website director had the misfortune of sitting near someone who had allegedly contracted the H1N1 flu. "I felt like I was going to prison," said Su, 33.

Afghanistan's only known pig has been locked in a room, away from visitors to the zoo where it normally grazes beside deer and goats, because people are worried it could infect them with swine flu. The pig is a curiosity in Muslim Afghanistan, where pork and pig products are illegal because they are considered irreligious.

As she approached the immigration counter at Beijing's international airport at 7 a.m. Sunday, bleary-eyed after flying all night from Bali, Lucia Rocio heard the agitated whispering of the Chinese officials. Mexican passport. Mexican passport. Rocio was pulled out of line and taken to a small room where she was given a mask and a thermometer, which she dared not put in her mouth because it appeared to be unsterilized.