Anoush Hendiazad of Round Hill and her sister Avisha Hendiazad of Arlington are back home today after being detained by Chinese authorities over suspicions that the two may have contracted the H1N1 virus on their May 26 inbound flight to Asia.

Anoush and Avisha frequently travel to Europe and Asia as part of their Classique Home furniture business. The sisters own stores in Ashburn and Falls Church and are expanding their product line via the Home Shopping Network. The women were in China this week with a U.S. crew filming a manufacturing segment for HSN that will air in July.

The Sorelle Sisters, Anoush and Avisha, as seen on HSN (Photo courtesy of Anoush Sorelle)

Before boarding their June 3 early morning flight back to the U.S. from Hong Kong, Chinese authorities detained the sisters for several hours at the airport.

"We had no idea what we'd done wrong," Anoush said in a phone interview this morning.

They were then taken to a health-care facility - Anoush described it as "a M*A*S*H-like campsite" - where officials explained that the two were under court orders to stay until midnight June 3 because, Anoush recalled, "a passenger sitting within three rows of us on our flight from Newark had tested positive for the H1N1 virus."

Anoush said doctors told her and her sister that they could expedite their trip home by taking the anti-viral drug Tamiflu - even though neither of them had any increased temperature or flu-like symptoms.

"We took it hoping that we could leave sooner," she said. "But that didn't happen."

Meanwhile, Anoush's husband contacted the U.S. Consulate office, where officials there told him there was little they could do for the women. The consulate's Hong Kong Web site does warn that the government there "may impose a quarantine of up to seven days" on those who may have come in close contact of someone with H1N1.

Anoush and her sister were released yesterday morning and arrived home last night.

What steams Anoush most about the ordeal, she said, is why she and her sister weren't contacted earlier during their stay.

"Nobody - including Continental Airlines - made any effort in the prior six days to let us know [that we may have been in contact with the virus]," she said. "All of this could have been avoided."

A call placed to Continental's corporate communication's office for comment has not been returned.