They kill "Birds" in Hong Kong. Bird Flu.....................................................(kind of redundant)..................
scmp.com
TuesdayÿÿDecember 23ÿÿ1997
Bird flu fears for third child in family
STAFF REPORTERS
The six-year-old cousin of two children infected with bird flu was admitted to hospital yesterday after becoming the latest suspected casualty of the deadly virus.
The boy's illness has escalated fears of human-to-human transmission of the disease. It came as a ninth Hong Kong patient was confirmed as having had the H5N1 virus, unknown in humans before May.
The boy now believed sick with the virus is the fourth young member of his extended family to become ill.
A swab was taken from the boy yesterday for testing, but doctors have been unable to produce a viral culture yet, a Department of Health spokesman said.
She believed the boy, who lives in Aberdeen, had mixed with his infected cousins, a girl of five and a boy, two, at their Ap Lei Chau home.
The two-year-old boy's sister, three, lived in the same flat and is also suspected of having the disease. All are in satisfactory conditions at Queen Mary Hospital.
Health officials now concede the virus is probably being passed between humans rather than just being caught from infected birds, a key factor in whether the outbreak becomes an epidemic.
Local health officials and visiting experts from the World Health Organisation and the United States Centres for Disease Control have so far been unable to identify how the virus is spreading but have predicted more infections.
Officials from the Health and Agriculture departments will meet today to discuss ways to ease public concern over the virus which saw many families shun traditional chicken dishes during last night's winter solstice festival.
New tests are being ordered by Agriculture and Fisheries Department staff to identify chickens carrying the virus. If one chicken is found to be infected, its whole flock will be slaughtered.
Democratic Party health spokesman Dr Huang Chen-ya said the crucial point was that officers had been ''totally unable to prove that it is not transmitted human to human''.
''The public is being left in limbo the Government must deal with the possibility that it is being transmitted between people,'' he said.
''It's caused chaos in the chicken industry and now the tourist industry.''
Provisional legislator for the medical profession Dr Leong Che-hung said wwhile there was no need for alarm, there appeared to be a ''high possibility'' of the infection passing between people.
Three people have died of complications caused by the bird flu virus since May, the latest a 13-year-old girl on Sunday.
The ninth confirmed case involves a 37-year-old man, although hospital staff said he had now recovered. However, a 24-year-old woman remains critically ill. |
