Hong Kong Issues H5N1 Alert
Recombinomics Commentary 13:13
February 25, 2008
Public hospitals should report to the e-Flu system of HA all patients fulfilling the case definition of having pneumonia (all types) of unidentified etiology and travel history to affected areas/countries with confirmed human cases of avian influenza infection in the past six months, within seven days before symptoms onset.
The above comments are from an alert issued by Hong Kong in response to the recent H5N1 fatalities in southern China. The most recent (44F), who died today, has been H5N1 confirmed. Media reports suggest dead chickens owned and eaten by the victim are likely sources of the infection.
However, the new cases in southern China and northern Vietnam (see satellite map) raise the possibility of a more efficient transmission to humans and the above alert would target the more severe cases, which involve pneumonia, which is common in fatal cases. All of the recent confirmed cases in southern China and northern Vietnam have been fatal.
Sequence data on H5N1 from the recent cases would be useful.
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