Father and Son with Zika Travel via SAR
Local | Kinling Lo 02-24
A father and son from the mainland, who went on a group tour to Fiji and Samoa, are confirmed to have contracted the mosquito-borne Zika virus, the Centre for Health Protection in Hong Kong said.
This brings to five the number of Zika cases in the mainland. The World Health Organization has cited Zika as an international public health emergency due to its link to microcephaly in newborns. Four of the five males have passed through Hong Kong.
The latest cases are a 38-year-old father and his nine- year-old son, believed to have been bitten by mosquitoes on their trip to the Pacific islands as part of a tour group on February 4.
The two residents of Zhejiang returned to the mainland via Hong Kong on February 14 and traveled in the same group tour as the third imported case of Zika, a 38-year- old man confirmed on February 19 to have the virus.
A 28-year-old Guangzhou man, who was infected in Venezuela, passed through the Netherlands and Russia then onto Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, it was revealed by the Centre for Health Protection last night that Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital mistakenly discharged the first imported case of bird flu H7N9 this winter before the disease, which may prove fatal, was confirmed.
A 60-year old Hong Kong man, who had been working in Suzhou near Shanghai, was hospitalized at the Chai Wan facility last Monday because of high fever.
He was discharged four days later after a preliminary negative test for bird flu.
The hospital confirmed H7N9 yesterday and the sufferer was sent to the Infectious Disease Centre of Princess Margaret Hospital in Kwai Chung.
CHP controller Leung Ting-hung said: “The case will be notified to the World Health Organization and the National Health and Family Planning Commission.
“We are communicating with mainland health authorities to follow up on the patient’s exposure and movements in the mainland.”
The man visited a live poultry market in Suzhou before returning to Hong Kong for the New Year.
His son and wife are also isolated at the disease center in Princess Margaret Hospital.
The man visited private doctors twice before being admitted to the Eastern Hospital after he arrived in the city on February 5. He again went to a private doctor on Thursday and Sunday before being readmitted to hospital.