Flu Outbreak Closes Hong Kong Schools

By Min Lee

Associated Press Writer

March 12, 2008

CBNNews.com - HONG KONG - Hong Kong ordered more than half a million primary and kindergarten students Wednesday to stay home for two weeks because of a flu outbreak in one of the world's most densely populated cities.

The government also asked one of the territory's top scientists to investigate the deaths of three children. But the World Health Organization said only two of the children tested positive for the flu, and both had other diseases as well. The WHO added Thursday that there was no sign that the situation in Hong Kong was different from a regular seasonal outbreak.

The outbreak has not been linked to bird flu, which was detected in birds in Hong Kong. Bird flu remains difficult for humans to catch, but scientists fear the virus that causes it could eventually mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans.

The government has ordered all kindergartens, primary and special education schools closed for two weeks starting Thursday, Health Secretary York Chow said.

But some students and their parents missed the late Wednesday announcement and went to school anyway.

At the Cho Yiu Catholic Primary School, nine students arrived early Thursday. School staff took their temperature and gave them masks. The students read picture books instead of attending class.

The schools had been expected to start their Easter Holiday in a little over a week, though the date varies with each school. Chow said bringing the holiday forward would help reduce cross infection among school children and calm public fears.

"When children are at school, it's very hard to keep them still and prevent them from contacting each other. They may not listen to orders and wear masks or wash their hands. This is an effective measure from an infectious disease standpoint," Chow said.

The closure will affect nearly 560,000 students at 1,745 schools, according to enrollment figures from the 2006-2007 academic year.

There was no sign so far of the major public panic that followed the outbreak of the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome that killed 299 in Hong Kong five years ago. Locals have not started wearing masks en masse as they did during SARS.

But Hospital Authority Chief Executive Shane Solomon said earlier the flu outbreak has strained hospitals, with nursing and support staff working an additional 15,000 hours in the past two weeks.

Since March 6, health officials have recorded nine flu outbreaks, mostly at schools, affecting 532 people in the territory of nearly 7 million.

Chow emphasized that there was no sign of "any significant change of the virus that makes it exceptionally more virulent than the usual flu virus."

The flu cases so far are scattered across the territory, which does not suggest the spread of an exceptionally virulent virus, P.L. Ho, a scientist at the University of Hong Kong's microbiology department, said in an interview with Cable TV.

He also said the illness might have been unusually severe in younger children because it was their first infection with certain flu viruses.

"We need to be careful but we don't need to panic," said Yuen Kwok-yung, who is heading a panel of scientists to study the recent child deaths. Yuen was one of the scientists who studied SARS after it surfaced in southern China in November 2002.

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said the first child who died tested negative for all types of influenza viruses. The second child tested positive for the flu but also suffered from an underlying metabolic disease. The third - a 7-year-old boy who died Tuesday - had both the flu and encephalitis.

Chow said authorities became concerned because five classmates of the 7-year-old boy have also been hospitalized. Officials have said that some of his classmates were suspected of suffering from the flu, and the government closed the school earlier this week.

The five classmates who were still hospitalized were in stable condition, Chow said.

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