Hong Kong Shuts Schools to Halt Flu Following Deaths (Update3)
By Le-Min Lim and Chia-Peck Wong
March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong shut all primary schools and kindergartens, ordering more than half a million students in the city to stay home, following the deaths of four children with flu-like symptoms.
``We have been working closely with the Department of Health and the secondary schools the last few days to know more about this spread,'' said Anna Chan, an officer with the Education Bureau's information department. ``We shut the kindergartens and primary schools because the young get contaminated more easily.''
In 2003, the virus severe acute respiratory syndrome broke out in Hong Kong, killing 299 people and crippling the territory's tourism industry. Seasonal flu strikes up to 15 percent of the world's population and kills 250,000 to 500,000 people a year, according to the World Health Organization.
``At this time of the year, it's a viral soup everywhere,'' said Peter Cordingley, the Manila-based spokesman for the World Health Organization's Western Pacific region. ``This is a bad time of the year for Hong Kong, but it's not an exceptional place. It's just that Hong Kong is a very jam- packed-tight type city and it's the perfect place for transmission lines to thrive.''
Two of the children who died tested positive for influenza A, the Health Department said. It declined to cite influenza as the cause of the deaths. Another two children died after suffering flu-like symptoms, the department said, adding that tests haven't yet confirmed the presence of influenza A.
Deaths `Very Low'
The influenza viruses circulating in Hong Kong this year are predominantly type B and a variant of the type A (H3N2) strain that caused epidemics in Australia last year, including the deaths of three children, said John Nicholls, associate professor of pathology at the University of Hong Kong.
In Hong Kong, ``there is a large number of kids being infected,'' Nicholls said. Actual numbers of deaths from the disease are ``still a very low,'' he said in an interview yesterday.
A seven-year-old boy died at the city's Tuen Mun Hospital and the school closed amid the flu outbreak, state broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong reported. A three-year-old and 27- month-old have also died. No common factors between the deaths have been identified at this stage, according to the government.
``If you look back to SARS, you can understand why there is a high level of anxiety in Hong Kong among the public at the moment,'' WHO's Cordingley said. ``But this is just seasonal flu. There is nothing exceptional in what is happening in Hong Kong at the moment. In fact in recent times, it's been worse than this.''
Demand for Beds
The deaths will be investigated to see whether the virus is mutating, Yuen Kwok-yung, a University of Hong Kong professor in microbiology, said at a press conference yesterday.
The Hospital Authority said it has earmarked HK$20 million ($2.6 million) to implement measures up to the end of April to cope with a surge in demand for public hospital services.
Flu outbreaks were confirmed at three primary schools yesterday, the Centre for Health Protection said on its Web site. The outbreak is suspected to have spread to 20 other schools, it said.
Last week, 13 cases were confirmed, still below the peak of 22 recorded during 2007's flu season, the center, part of the government's health department, said. Hospital admission rates due to flu among children younger than five years old and the elderly, while rising, are still below those recorded during the peak seasons in the past two years, the center said.
Hong Kong had 140,783 kindergarten and 410,516 primary students the school year ended July 2007, according to the Hong Kong Education Bureau's Web site.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chia-Peck Wong in Hong Kong at cpwong@bloomberg.netLe-Min Lim in Hong Kong at lmlim@bloomberg.net;
Last Updated: March 12, 2008 23:27 EDT |
