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Upon the notification from the Health Department of Guangdong Province concerning a suspected human case of avian influenza H5N1 in Shenzhen, Hospital Authority (HA) Central Committee on Infectious Disease decided to implement a three-week Enhanced Surveillance Programme from 15 June 2006. Public hospitals should report to the authority's e-Flu system all patients fulfilling the case definition of having pneumonia (all types) of unidentified etiology and who had travelled in the seven days before the onset of symptoms, to affected areas / countries with confirmed human cases of avian influenza infection in the past six months.
The three-week Enhanced Surveillance Programme was concluded at yesterday's (5 July) midnight. All public hospitals, however, are still on high alert. During the three-week programme, a total of 161 cases (90 male, 71 female, aged 2 months to 89) has been reported. The patients have visited Shanghai, Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Fujian, Zhejiang and Thailand before the onset of symptoms. HA has reported all these cases to the Centre for Health Protection, and provided rapid tests for the patients. None of their test results is positive to Influenza A (H5) virus.
Ends/Thursday, July 6, 2006
Issued at HKT 21:01
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