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A notice is seen at Queen Mary Hospital warning people of the flu outbreak. Photo: Dickson Lee

Fewer than 10 doctors answer appeal for help from Hong Kong public hospitals struggling against flu surge

Health minister says volunteering exercise still in its early stage, as facilities grapple with summer flu strain that has left 208 people dead since May

Wellness

Fewer than 10 doctors from Hong Kong’s Department of Health have volunteered to work at overcrowded public hospitals on their days off to help battle a surge in summer flu patients, the city’s health minister said, three days after the government appealed for assistance.

Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee said on Saturday she hoped more doctors would sign up in the coming days after the Hospital Authority asked administrative and research doctors working in the department to come to their aid amid a summer flu strain that has caused 208 deaths since May.

The authority, which manages public hospitals in the city, on Friday announced an extra HK$20 million in spending to secure 48 beds at the privately run St Teresa’s Hospital over the next two months to cope with the crisis.

But Chan on Saturday sidestepped questions on whether the lukewarm response from doctors had contradicted authority director Dr Cheung Wai-lun’s description of it as “good” just a day earlier.

Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee visits Tuen Mun Hospital on Thursday. Photo: Dickson Lee

The minister said the exercise was still in its early stage.

Chan also defended the government’s decision not to deliver two weeks’ worth of antiviral drug Tamiflu to elderly people at nursing homes and public outpatient clinics – a suggestion recently floated by infectious diseases expert Professor Yuen Kwok-yung to curb the influenza A H3N2 strain prevalent in the city.

She said a review of data and research done by the department had found no evidence that offering patients Tamiflu before symptoms emerged could effectively prevent an outbreak.

“[When considering] prescriptions as prevention, the Centre for Health Protection will carefully review international experiences and expert opinion,” Chan told TVB’s On the Record programme on Saturday.

“Most important is positive evidence.”

Patients at Tuen Mun Hospital. Photo: Dickson Lee

She added that the decision to not hand out Tamiflu had nothing to do with the amount of the drug in stock in the city, and said the side effects of the medicine should be noted.

Yuen, chair professor at the University of Hong Kong’s microbiology department, said earlier that influenza A H3N2 might have mutated in a way that made vaccines used in the past two years ineffective.

Meanwhile, Chan said the authority would look into an unprecedented case of a Hong Kong patient contracting the potentially fatal mosquito-borne disease Japanese encephalitis through a blood transfusion – a world-first.

But she said it would be difficult to conduct tests on donors for the disease before blood donations in the future.

Health authorities were promoting mosquito-preventative measures at Kingswood Villas in Tin Shui Wai on Saturday, the estate where the blood donor who passed on the virus was living. Chan said the government would also launch its third large-scale anti-mosquito programme next month.

The 52-year-old patient, currently fighting for his life in Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam, is the first person in the world to contract the virus through a blood transfusion.

There is no cure for the virus, which is normally spread through the bite of a mosquito, according to the World Health Organisation.

The patient received the transfusion at Grantham Hospital in Wong Chuk Hang two weeks ago, and experts believe his lung transplant operation in May made him more vulnerable to the virus.

The blood was donated by a 46-year-old Hong Kong man who passed all health tests and showed no symptoms of the virus when he gave blood in May. Two more patients also received blood from the same donor. One of them died of a brain haemorrhage after undergoing surgery earlier this month. The other, being treated for leukaemia, was discharged from hospital earlier this month without showing any symptoms.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Hospital appeal to doctors for flu help falls on deaf ears
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