China
Avian flu alert as HK sees 1st case in 7 yrs
By Shan Juan and Joseph Li (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-19 07:50
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'Risk is slim' of transmission between humans
Beijing / Hong Kong - Health experts have warned of the possibility of more cases of avian flu after Hong Kong reported its first human case of the illness since 2003.
But they also appealed for calm among the public, saying that the possibility of human-to-human transmission was slim.
Outbreaks of influenza occur more frequently during the Northern Hemisphere winter and health authorities in Hong Kong and the mainland have enhanced surveillance procedures.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government raised its alert level to "serious", meaning there is a "high risk" of people contracting the potentially fatal disease, a spokesman for the Hong Kong Department of Health said on Thursday.
But officials and experts said there was little risk of human-to-human transmission, after a 59-year-old woman tested positive for Influenza A (H5N1), a variant of avian flu. She was listed in a serious condition in a hospital isolation ward.
Hong Kong recorded its last human case of bird flu in 2003. The city had the world's first major outbreak among humans in 1997, when six people died of a variant of the virus, which is normally confined to poultry.
"Currently the chance of a widespread avian flu outbreak among residents can almost be ruled out. Based on current information, the case in Hong Kong is isolated and involved no human-to-human transmission," said Huang Liuyu, director of the Institute for Disease Prevention and Control of the People's Liberation Army on Thursday.
But he conceded that more human cases might emerge in the country during the winter.
Authorities have reported no signs of infected poultry, he said. "So chicken is safe to eat and no mass culling is needed."
In Hong Kong, experts are trying to discover the source of the infection and Secretary for Food and Health York Chow said on Thursday that it "was more likely from the mainland".
"Hong Kong needs to raise its vigilance level, the reason being if one case has happened, the second one may follow, and the mortality rate of avian flu is as high as 50 percent," he said.
The patient reportedly began to show symptoms, running nose and fever, on Nov 2, one day after she returned from a 7-day trip with her husband and daughter to Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou.
She tested positive for avian flu on Wednesday and has been quarantined since.
Her 60-year-old husband also displayed flu-like symptoms but has recovered.
Vivian Tan, press officer of the World Health Organization China Office, told China Daily on Thursday that the general risk of outbreak would not be significantly increased by an isolated case.
She urged health authorities to step up virus monitoring and to gather more epidemiological data to determine if anyone else was exposed and where the source of the infection was.
The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department of Hong Kong is carrying out thorough inspections of chicken farms and issued reminders to livestock markets and bird gardens to maintain standards of hygiene.
Healthcare workers and patients in hospitals are required to wear medical masks, while visiting hours will be reduced by two hours daily.
In Shanghai, where the woman visited, the health bureau immediately carried out an epidemiological investigation and traced relatives and hotel staff who were in close proximity to the woman, an official from the bureau said.
"Currently, they don't show any symptoms," said the official who declined to be identified.
Generally, human cases of H5N1 have been attributed to close contact with infected poultry and there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission, studies have found.
However, in December 2007, human transmission of the virus was reported between a father and his 24-year-old son, according to Shu Yuelong, a leading flu expert with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province neighboring Hong Kong, where tens of thousands of athletes are competing at the Asian Games, organizers said the case had no effect on the event but monitoring procedures had been put in place.
On the stock market, the Hong Kong case boosted the pharmaceutical sector, making it largely outperform the ailing index on Thursday.
The Zhejiang-based drug company Apeloa Co Ltd, for instance, surged by 7.65 percent to end at 8.87 yuan on Thursday. That compared with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index's 0.94 percent rally.
"Investors are very sensitive to such reports, in particular at a time when the market tumbled sharply and is searching for new growth impetus," said Zhu Lixu, an analyst at Hengtai Securities.
Wang Hongyi, Zhou Yan and Zhan Lisheng contributed to this story.
China Daily