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Red alert as HK detects 1st case in Asia

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-02 08:13

HONG KONG: Hong Kong was on red alert this weekend after health officials confirmed the city had detected Asia's first confirmed case of A(H1N1) influenza.

Special coverage:  A(H1N1) Influenza Outbreak Related readings:  Masks in global fashion amid swine flu  No name change for swine flu in New Zealand  Mexico: 300 confirmed swine flu cases, 12 dead  WHO to drop term 'swine flu' to protect pigs

The patient, a 25-year-old Mexican man who arrived on a China Eastern flight on Thursday after a stopover in Shanghai, was put in isolation at the Princess Margaret Hospital on Friday, said Donald Tsang, the special administrative region's chief executive.

"We have had the first confirmed case of influenza A(H1N1) in Hong Kong," he said. "The alert level has been raised from serious to emergency."

Emergency is the highest flu alert level in Hong Kong.

Tsang told reporters the Mexican tourist had checked into the Metropark Hotel in Wanchai on his arrival but later visited a doctor with flu symptoms, including a fever.

He was found to have the A(H1N1) influenza, previously known as swine flu, following tests by both Hong Kong's Department of Health and the University of Hong Kong.

He said the patient was in a stable condition but gave no further details on the man's identity.

Lam Ping-yan, the director of health, placed a quarantine order on the Metropark, while television footage showed police officers locking down the hotel wearing masks and gloves.

However, Tsang urged people to keep calm and said he would be heading a special taskforce to fight the flu.

In Beijing, Minister of Health Chen Zhu said the possibility of the epidemic spreading to the mainland is increasing and the prevention and control work is "arduous".

The announcement of Hong Kong's first infection came as Mexico started a five-day shutdown of most offices and businesses in an attempt to halt the spread of the deadly flu strain. Officials said they were encouraged the number of new cases was falling.

Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said the public hospitals that treat roughly half the country admitted just 46 patients with severe flu symptoms on Thursday, down from 212 patients on April 20. "This is encouraging," he said.

Mexico, the worst-hit country, has reported 176 deaths from the new strain of the A(H1N1) virus. Worldwide, 12 countries have confirmed cases.

The largest number of confirmed cases outside Mexico is in the United States, which has had 141. Almost all infections outside Mexico have been mild and only a handful of patients have required hospital treatment. Only one person has died outside Mexico: A toddler from Mexico who traveled to the US.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said experts do not yet know enough about the new strain to say how deadly it is, how far it might spread and how long any potential pandemic may last.

It said on Friday that no meeting of its emergency committee was scheduled, meaning there was no immediate likelihood of its level 5 alert being raised to a full phase 6 pandemic alert.

To declare a full-blown pandemic, the WHO would have to be convinced the new virus was spreading in a sustained way among communities in another region besides North America.

The WHO said on Thursday it would call the new virus strain Influenza A(H1N1), not swine flu, since there is no evidence pigs have the virus or can transmit it to humans.

A top Mexican medical officer has accused the WHO of being slow to respond to the country's warning about a health crisis that turned into a global scare. The WHO disputed the claim.

Dr Miguel Angel Lezana, Mexico's chief epidemiologist, told Associated Press on Thursday his center alerted the Pan American Health Organization, a regional arm of the WHO, on April 16 about an unusually late rash of flu and pneumonia cases in Mexico.

But he said no action was taken until eight days later, when the WHO announced it was worried the outbreak could become a pandemic.

WHO officials said on Friday the agency learned of cases of "suspicious influenza" from Mexico on April 9 and responded quickly on April 24 when US and Canadian laboratories identified the virus as a new strain of flu.

"We moved into operation within a matter of hours," WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham said.

AP, Reuters and Xinhua