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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
In recent weeks, the Hospital Authority (HA) has noted a surge in attendance at Accident & Emergency Departments (AED) despite the opening of eight Designated Flu Clinics which have been in operation every day since June 13 and provided consultation to over 40,000 patients.
In the past four weeks, the average daily attendance at the 16 AEDs increased from 5,807 in the last week of July to 6,244 in the past week, with attendance peaking at over 6,900 on Monday (August 24) this week. "At the same time, the attendance of patients presenting with influenza-like illness (ILI) in some major A&E Departments also shows a rising trend, from about 6% in June to around 10% this month," an HA spokesman said.
The spokesman said ILI patients seeking consultation at both DFCs and AEDs will be assessed by clinicians to determine the course of treatment, the need for further investigation and hospital admission.
"However, tests for human swine influenza is not routine for ILI patients in general but for specific groups of high risk patients, namely, patients below the age of six, pregnant women, patients with persistent fever after 48 hours of symptomatic treatment and patients with chronic diseases," the spokesman said.
"The classification of influenza infection will not affect the diagnosis and treatment for the majority of patients who present mild influenza symptoms. Laboratory resources will need to be reserved for the diagnosis and subsequent clinical management of high risk patients."
The HA spokesman reiterated that public hospitals and clinics will only prescribe symptom control medication to influenza patients with mild symptoms as "antiviral treatment will need to be conserved and provided to clinically indicated patients and specific groups of high risk patients."
The HA will continue to assist the Centre for Health Protection in monitoring the situation of seasonal influenza and human swine influenza in Hong Kong by collecting patient specimens for surveillance purposes," the spokesman added.
Ends/Thursday, August 27, 2009
Issued at HKT 15:26
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