SHANGHAI, July 28 (Reuters) - China has tracked down and is treating two Taiwanese tuberculosis patients who defied a flight ban to travel from Taiwan to the Chinese mainland, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

The two patients, a 55-year-old man suffering a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis and his 57-year-old wife who has standard tuberculosis and is infectious, were found in the eastern province of Jiangsu on Friday.

The couple, who took a flight from the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung to Hong Kong and then boarded a plane to Nanjing in mainland China on Wednesday, have been transferred to hospital, Xinhua quoted China's Ministry of Health as saying.

Health authorities in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China launched a hunt for passengers who sat near the couple on the flights and advised them to seek medical check-ups.

Xinhua did not say why the couple had broken rules against air travel for infectious tuberculosis patients, but Taiwanese officials said earlier that the man and wife had gone to stay with relatives in Nanjing.

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