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Flu outbreak shuts Hong Kong schools for two weeks
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 13 - 03 - 2008


More than half a million Hong
Kong schoolchildren stayed at home on Thursday after the
government shut all kindergartens and primary schools for two
weeks to contain an outbreak of flu, Reuters reported.
A government-appointed panel of experts is probing the deaths
of three children, aged 2, 3 and 7, over the last two weeks. The
two older children were infected with seasonal flu, while the
cause of illness in the youngest child is unknown.
The health scare has not been linked to H5N1 bird flu but the
government's decision on Wednesday night to close the schools
brought back memories of 2003, when an outbreak of Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome hit Hong Kong.
Health Secretary York Chow said the government closed the
schools because the numbers of young children getting infected
seemed higher this year.
"Our main concern is the infection of young children. The
percentage of young children getting influenza this season seems
to be higher," he said at a press briefing.
"The second is the mortality ... if there're two deaths
related to flu even before the peak, then we need to do something
to minimise the numbers in the weeks to come," he said, referring
to two of the three children -- a girl aged 3 and a boy aged 7.
The government disclosed two new cases on Thursday, a
3-year-old boy WHO was in stable condition in hospital and a
21-month-old boy who died in late February after being admitted
to hospital with flu-like symptoms. His cause of illness is
unknown.
Mrs Kwan, a mother of a 10-year-old student, was worried.
"You can see that many people in Hong Kong are a bit scared
of such viruses. It's not like before when kids would just have
regular cough and fever. Now, you just don't know how serious any
outbreak might be. I am very worried," she said.
Experts say there was no reason to panic.
"This year, there seem to be slightly more flu cases. But
from what I can see, we get a bad flu year every few years. I
don't think it is very unusual or different from previous years,"
said Leo Poon, a virologist from the University of Hong Kong.


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