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.
"There are at least two instances where patients subsequently confirmed to have H7N9 - one was treated in Tuen Mun Hospital and the other in Queen Mary Hospital - both lied to frontline staff [at border checkpoints] about their exposure to wet markets and chickens in mainland China," he said.
He cited that in the United States, government authorities require medical officers to declare and administer oaths when carrying out quarantine duties.
“Hong Kong should do the same,” Ho said.
After leaving Chek Lap Kok airport, the infected man took a bus across the border to Huizhou the same day. He was moved yesterday to Guangzhou Number 8 People's Hospital, which dealt with Sar cases in 2003.
The city was on alert after the man was confirmed to have contracted the deadly virus on Friday, as the government raced to track down plane and bus passengers who sat close to him.
Executive councillor Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, a former secretary for security, called for more intensive inspections of incoming travellers at border checkpoints, saying more people were needed to carry out checks.
Another precaution would be to distribute leaflets on planes, she suggested.
"The [health department] should set up more stations … now that two cases have been identified," Ip said.
Ho warned: "We should review the procedure," referring to how difficult it is for frontline staff to detain people suspected to be infected.
The two South Korean travellers were picked up in Causeway Bay yesterday afternoon and taken to the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village in Sai Kung to be quarantined for 14 days. They are liable to a fine of HK$5,000 and six months' imprisonment, according to the Prevention and Control of Disease Regulations.
Questions to the health authorities asking how the man was able to slip through the airport checks and if either he or the two women who failed to obey the quarantine order would face legal consequences went unanswered yesterday.
The government urged all 158 passengers on Asiana Airlines Flight OZ723 from Seoul to Hong Kong on May 26, as well as passengers of the buses operated by Eternal East Cross-border Coach Limited that left the airport to Huizhou that day, to contact the government for further assessment. It is not known how many passengers were on the buses.
The Department of Health has tested 138 people, who tested negative for Mers, since 2012.
The number of confirmed cases to the World Health Organisation is 1,139, with at least 431 related deaths from 24 countries. Three more cases were recorded in South Korea, taking the total there to 13.
Drama unfolds
1pm: Asiana Airlines OZ723 from Seoul arrives at Hong Kong airport with a male Mers patient on board. The man is stopped by airport medical officers as he has a fever and a cough, but is allowed to leave after he said he felt fine
3pm: The man boards a bus to Sha Tau Kok
4.46pm Boards another bus from Sha Tau Kok to Huizhou
China notified by South Korean health officials that a suspected Mers patient has left for China
The Korean man is found by mainland authorities and isolated
Afternoon: mainland authorities confirm the man has Mers
6pm: Hong Kong authorities locate 29 people who have been in close contact with the man; 11 of them are no longer in Hong Kong
About 7pm: 16 of the 18 people left in HK put in quarantine. Two South Korean women refused and remain at large in the city
About 4pm: the women are found and quarantined
