Two New Zealand women have spent a hellish holiday in Vietnamese hospitals after being quarantined with swine flu.
Margaret and her daughter Alana Jackson were supposed to be celebrating Alana's 21st birthday at the end of June.
They had planned to meet another daughter Michelle in Vietnam but were pulled aside at Ho Chi Minh airport when heat sensors showed they had high temperatures, The Dominion Post reported.
They were taken to a hospital they nicknamed "the prison".
It had bars on the windows and baton-wielding security guards, but no food, water, toilet paper or soap.
Mrs Jackson tested positive for the virus and was transferred to another hospital, where she was given a camp chair to sleep on in an outdoor corridor.
Alana was left behind and was "freaking out", Mrs Jackson said.
She managed to contact the New Zealand consulate, who found both Alana and Michelle and reunited the three.
After a week in quarantine, Mrs Jackson and Alana were released but were shell-shocked and exhausted.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it knew of 60 New Zealanders who had been quarantined overseas since the beginning of the swine flu outbreak. None was now in overseas quarantine.
