Griep-epidemie

De laatste dagen doen er vreemde geruchten de ronde over het opnieuw uitbreken van SARS en vogelgriep in Hong Kong. Dit naar aanleiding van 3 sterfgevallen van kinderen(2,3 en 7 jaar oud).

Er schijnt op dit moment een griep-golf te zijn in Hong Kong. Vooral mensen met verlaagde weerstand, ouderen en kinderen zijn daar de dupe van.
Ik zal hieronder straks een kopie zetten van het laatste nieuws van de Hong Kong Daily en Time.

Maar hier in Hong Kong merk je niets van dit alles. Er lopen nog steeds geen mensen rond met mond maskers. Iedereen doet gewoon. Er is geen paniek. Wel wordt geadviseerd om je persoonlijke hygiene in het vizier te houden. Maar als het goed is, doe je dat toch wel. Handen wassen na toiletbezoek, niet spugen op straat, en je hand voor de mond als je moet hoesten.

Vandaag heb ik aan een taxi-chauffeur gevraagd of er iets leeft onder de bevolking van Hong Kong wat wij westerlingen niet door hebben. Volgens hem is er echt niets aan de hand. Tijdens een griep-epidemie overlijden altijd wel mensen over de gehele wereld. Alleen omdat het nu in HK plaats heeft gevonden, wordt alles gelijk in verband gebracht met SARS.

Vandaag was op het nieuws dat er geen verband bestond tussen de sterfgevallen. Er was onderzocht op SARS en vogelgriep en dat is nu officieel uitgesloten.

HONG KONG) — Hong Kong's government ordered Wednesday that all kindergartens and primary schools be closed for two weeks amid a flu outbreak, shutting down classes for more than a half million students.

The government also asked one of its top scientists to study three child deaths over the past week.

The Education Bureau said all kindergartens, primary schools and special schools would begin the Easter holiday early to prevent the spread of influenza in schools. The order affected 1,745 schools, which had 559,019 students enrolled in the 2006-07 school year.

Health secretary York Chow said the administration has seen a growing number of people suffering from the flu, adding that bringing the Easter break forward will help reduce cross infection among school children and calm public fears.

"We estimate this peak season of influenza will continue for a few weeks," Chow said during a news conference late Wednesday night.

Earlier in the day, Chow said Yuen Kwok-yung, who helped study Hong Kong's outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak or SARS about four years ago, will head a panel of scientists studying the recent deaths.

SARS infected 1,755 people in Hong Kong and killed 299.

It was not clear whether the three cases were linked but that he became concerned after the most recent death — that of a 7-year-old boy on Tuesday — because five of the victim's classmates have also been hospitalized, Chow said.

The cause of the boy's death has not been determined. Officials have said that some of his classmates were believed to be 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.

No cause has been determined in the two other deaths that occurred last week — girls aged 2 and 3.

The deaths came amid a series of flu outbreaks in Hong Kong over the past several days. Health officials have confirmed a total of six outbreaks at schools, a hospital and a nursing home for the elderly since March 6.

The flu outbreaks also have led to full occupancy at some hospitals, while the number of patients seeking walk-in treatment at emergency rooms had risen 16 percent from the same period last month, Hospital Authority Chief Executive Shane Solomon told reporters Wednesday.

None of the cases have been linked to bird flu, which was recently detected in birds in Hong Kong.

Bird flu remains difficult for humans to catch, but scientists fear the virus that causes it could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans and trigger a pandemic that some say could kill millions.