Flu kills 8 more in Hong Kong; toll may hit 200

[HigherGround]

Flu kills 8 more in Hong Kong; toll may hit 200

Worse is to come, warns infection control chief, after winter flu season claims 59 lives so far this year, with 31 dying in one week alone

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 27 January, 2015, 10:46pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 28 January, 2015, 4:06am

Emily Tsang and Elizabeth Cheung

With the epidemic adding a huge burden to public hospitals, staff are trying their best to group flu patients in the same medical wards. Photo: David Wong

Eight more flu patients died yesterday, pushing the number of victims to 59 so far this year - with a warning that the virus could last well into April and claim more than 200 lives. Patients in intensive care last night included a two-year-old girl whose condition was described as serious.

The grim forecast came from the Hospital Authority's chief infection control officer Dr Dominic Tsang Ngai-chong who said he expected the winter flu peak to last six to 12 more weeks. He also predicted that the infection rate would not be at its worst for another three weeks.

The third week of the year alone claimed 31 lives, the highest weekly death toll from flu in five years.

"We've observed that the winter flu season is starting a few weeks earlier this year," Tsang said yesterday, adding that hospitals had tightened their infection control measures.

With the epidemic adding a huge burden to public hospitals, staff were trying their best to group flu patients in the same medical wards but facilities were limited, he said.

The epidemic this winter has been fuelled by the World Health Organisation getting it wrong regarding which flu strains would prove prevalent, and therefore which vaccines should be used to protect the most vulnerable.

As of yesterday, 118 flu patients, including at least seven children, had required intensive care this month, according to the Department of Health. The 59 people who have died have all been adults, and most of the patients were confirmed to have the H3N2 strain.

The seriously ill two-year-old girl was admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit at Prince of Wales Hospital, Sha Tin, suffering severe pneumonia and shock. Four people who have been in contact with her have developed symptoms of respiratory infection and their conditions were yesterday described as stable.

Over Sunday and Monday, 70 schools, old-age homes and other institutions reported 174 new flu cases.

Tsang estimated the fatality rate at 1 to 2 per cent, with most working-age adults who contract the virus only developing mild symptoms and not requiring hospital care.

"It is clear that most of the flu patients who have died were elderly, and a majority of them, some 80 per cent, had chronic diseases," Tsang said.

University of Hong Kong microbiologist Dr Ho Pak-leung had earlier said that the number of seriously ill flu patients was likely to be higher than the department's figures as patients who required breathing tubes but were not under intensive care were not counted.

Tsang defended the figures yesterday. He said that the statistics were measured the same way each year, meaning effective year-on-year comparisons could be made.