**************************************

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

As at 1 pm today (April 27), there is an additional 16 patients confirmed to have atypical pneumonia following admission to public hospitals earlier. They include two healthcare workers (one from Caritas Medical Centre and one from Tuen Mun Hospital). The remaining 14 are other patients and contacts of patients with atypical pneumonia.

A total of 668 patients have recovered from atypical pneumonia and have been discharged from public hospitals. Of them, 36 were discharged today. There are also 115 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 patients are receiving treatment in intensive care unit.

Twelve patients died in Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital, Kwong Wah Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital, Tuen Mun Hospital, Tai Po Hospital and United Christian Hospital. This brought to 133 the total number of deaths relating to atypical pneumonia.

The deceased are aged from 45 to 91 and include eight women and four men. Eight of them have a history of chronic disease. Their information is as follows:

 Hospital        Patient's gender            Age
 AHNH                    female*                76
                          female                 91
 PWH                      male                   82
 KWH                     female*                 74
 PMH                      male*                  58
                         female*                 75
                          male                   56
 TMH                     female*                86
 TPH                     female*                73
 UCH                     female*                45
                          female*               72
                          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	347	147	133
Patients, family members & visitors	1196	521
Total	1543 **	668

Suspected cases

24

*	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 115 recovering patients in convalescence.

End/Sunday, April 27, 2003

NNNN

• Prevention of Atypical Pneumonia