Hong Kong Bird-Flu Case Looks Isolated

Dec. 4, 2013 6:12 a.m. ET

Live chickens for sale at a market in Hong Kong on Wednesday. European Pressphoto Agency

HONG KONG—Preliminary tests on 17 people who had close contact with an Indonesian worker infected with Hong Kong’s first confirmed case of H7N9 bird flu yielded negative results, the city’s health authorities said Wednesday.
As a precaution, however, the people, including 10 members of the family that employs the female helper, have been quarantined and prescribed with flu drugs, according to officials.

The 36-year-old helper remains hospitalized in critical condition. She had traveled to the neighboring Chinese city of Shenzhen last month and bought and handled live poultry while there. The woman, whose name wasn’t released, fell ill on Nov. 21 and was hospitalized six days later.
“We believe this is likely an imported sporadic case,” Hong Kong health secretary Ko Wing-man told lawmakers Wednesday. “At present, there’s no evidence showing that [the H7N9 bird-flu] virus can cause sustained human-to-human transmissions, and the risk of community outbreaks remains low.”
Over 200 other individuals with whom the helper could have come into contact also have been put under medical surveillance and provided with the flu medication Tamiflu, said Mr. Ko. He added that authorities were continuing to search for other people who may have been in contact with the infected woman.

Hong Kong is on public-health alert after the city confirmed its first human case of the deadly H7N9 bird flu. The WSJ’s Deborah Kan speaks with Professor Ben Cowling from the University of Hong Kong about how this bird-flu virus is harder to track.

With the latest case, there are a total of 141 confirmed human cases of H7N9—including 45 deaths—reported by China, Hong Kong and Taiwan authorities since April, according to the World Health Organization.
Hong Kong authorities have stepped up body-temperature checks and health-surveillance measures of all travelers at borders. Any suspected cases involving people with fever symptoms will be immediately referred to public hospitals for follow-up checks, the government said.
The government also urged travelers not to visit wet markets with live poultry in areas with confirmed bird-flu cases and to avoid direct contact with poultry, birds and their droppings.
Write to Chester Yung at chester.yung@wsj.com

Read more: Hong Kong Bird-Flu Case Looks Isolated