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The following is jointly issued by the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority:

As at 1 pm today (April 23), there is an additional 24 patients confirmed to have atypical pneumonia following admission to public hospitals earlier. They include 4 healthcare workers (two from Princess Margaret Hospital, one from Prince of Wales Hospital and one from Caritas Medical Centre). The remaining 20 are other patients and contacts of patients with atypical pneumonia.

A total of 522 patients have recovered from atypical pneumonia and have been discharged from public hospitals. Of them, 61 were discharged today. There are also 133 recovering patients who are in convalescence and preparation for discharge.

Most of the patients currently in hospital are showing positive responses to the new treatment protocol. One hundred and ten patients are receiving treatment in intensive care unit.

Six patients died in Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital (AHNH), Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) and Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH) This brought to 105 the total number of deaths relating to atypical pneumonia.

The six deceased, aged from 34 to 81,include four men and two women. Three of them have a history of chronic disease and their information is as follows:

Hospital        Patient's gender            Age
 AHNH                  female*              81
 PMH                      male*              73
                          male               39
                        female               34
 PWH                      male*              61
                          male               77

*denotes patient with a history of chronic disease

The cumulative figure for patients who have been admitted to public hospitals with atypical pneumonia since March 12 is as follows:

Nature	Cumulative Number	Total No. of Discharged Patients	Total No. of Deaths *
Health care workers of Hospitals/Clinics and medical students	335	124	105
Patients, family members & visitors	1123	398
Total	1458 **	522

*	Most of the deaths occurred in individuals who have a history of chronic diseases, or were patients who sought treatment at a relatively late stage of infection.
**	There are 133 recovering patients in convalescence.

End/Wednesday, April 23, 2003

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