CRI News Reports:Hong Kong Close Schools to Contain Flu Outbreak

All kindergartens, childcare centers, and primary schools in Hong Kong will start the Easter holiday earlier this year to prevent the spread of influenza on campuses. CRI Hong Kong Correspondent Liang Tao has the details.

Reporter:

Health secretary York Chow announced late Wednesday that the government has ordered all kindergartens, primary and special education schools to be closed for two weeks as a growing number of students are falling ill with the flu.

Chow also asked one of Hong Kong's top scientists to study possible links in the deaths of the three children -- a 7-year-old boy and girls ages 2 and 3 -- over the past week.
Dr Chow said,

"The expert group will do its best to investigate the recent deaths of the three children with flu-like symptoms. At this stage, no common factors have been identified."

He said, however, there is no sign of any significant change of the virus that makes it exceptionally more virulent than the usual flu virus.

He noted,

"We will monitor the situation both from the public health angle regarding the number of virus isolates on the day-to-day basis to see what is the trend. Secondly, of course, I hope a special expert committee will be able to give us some indication, particularly, regarding the virus, or some of the additional factors that would cause the severity in the few cases that unfortunately died. So that can actually help us make better decisions that we will announce as soon as possible."

Yuen Kwok-yung, who is heading up a panel of scientists to study the recent child deaths, said some of the younger children may have fallen unusually ill because it's their first infection with certain flu viruses.

He said,

"We will set up a special commission to further study the virus and conduct tests on gene array. After processing the data, we will submit a detailed report to the government."
Thomas Tsang, controller of Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection, said at least one of the three children who died has been confirmed to have the flu.

He said,

"On the death of the seven-year-old boy with respiratory and neurological symptoms in Tuen Mun Hospital, the center's further laboratory tests yielded positive results for influenza-A, or H1N1."

Since March 6, Hong Kong health officials have recorded 9 confirmed flu outbreaks and 65 suspected ones, mostly at schools, affecting a total of 532 people.

Chow said he expects the outbreaks to last for another few weeks.

Liang Tao, CRI News, Hong Kong