Update | Punish travellers who lie about their health, Sars expert urges
As two Korean women who refused quarantine order are tracked down, an HKU microbiologist calls for tougher measures to keep the city safe
People who lie about their health when entering Hong Kong must face criminal prosecution to help keep the city safe from deadly outbreaks like Sars, an expert in infectious diseases says.
With the city on high alert yesterday over Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers), two Korean women who had refused to go into quarantine after coming into contact with a man confirmed to have the deadly virus were tracked down.
On Friday the Korean man became China's first confirmed Mers case. He flew to Hong Kong on Tuesday after ignoring travel warnings and told a nurse who stopped him at a Chek Lap Kok health checkpoint that he felt fine, even though he had a fever.
The scare, which has left 18 people - including the two women - isolated in a camp near Sai Kung, centres on the 44-year-old Korean, who is now in hospital on the mainland after leaving Hong Kong on a bus. A further 17 people are under surveillance - six of them added yesterday.
Hong Kong does have laws against failing to declare a medical condition on arrival but no one has ever been successfully prosecuted.
University of Hong Kong microbiologist Dr Ho Pak-leung, who rose to prominence during the Sars outbreak in 2003, said: "One of the suggestions I have is that a person who makes a false declaration about their health status should be prosecuted."
Ho said it was not the first time someone had failed to declare their exposure history.