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Mary Ann

Mary Ann Benitez

May Chan

Paggie Leung

Tests rule out new bug as health minister floats free vaccinations
Test results from the seven-year-old boy and three-year-old girl with flu who died in Tuen Mun Hospital have confirmed no new virus was involved in their deaths, the Centre for Health Protection said yesterday.
The news came as the Hong Kong government said it was considering spending about HK$100 million to vaccinate a million children aged 11 or below next winter.
The centre said the H1N1 virus found in the boy and the H3N2 virus in the girl had the same genetic makeup as the H1N1 Brisbane strain and H3N2 Brisbane strain now circulating in Hong Kong. The cause of their deaths has not been verified.
'Both strains have been circulating in different parts of the world during the past few months,' the centre said. 'These results confirm the two children did not die from a new virus that is more virulent than the circulating strains in the region,' it said.
Meanwhile, Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Yat-ngok said the government would study flu vaccine effectiveness and how a mass vaccination of children could be implemented and financed.
And the Centre for Food Safety confirmed with mainland authorities yesterday there was no abnormality in Guangzhou farms that supply chickens to Hong Kong. That came after Guangzhou reported mass deaths of chickens at a market on Thursday. Some 400 birds were slaughtered and results of tests on them are expected this weekend.
The World Health Organisation welcomed the move towards vaccinating all children under the age of 12 against influenza, which local experts said would reduce complications.
But child-health experts said it should also consider providing free vaccination for all children, elderly people and other high-risk groups against both flu and streptococcus pneumonia - the main cause of influenza-related deaths.
'The WHO definitely believes that the best defence against influenza is vaccination, and the most vulnerable groups are the young and the old,' spokesman Gregory Hartl said.
Also welcoming the measure, medical sector legislator Kwok Ka-ki said it would be 'very effective' and would reduce the number of children admitted to hospital with flu. 'There is no method better than vaccination,' he said, adding it would reduce the risk of the flu virus mutating.
Hong Kong's existing government immunisation programme calls for vaccination of children aged six to 23 months, elderly people and those with chronic diseases.
Dr Kwok said a flu shot cost HK$100 to HK$150 and it would be acceptable to charge a small amount.
Dr Chow said the government was studying whether the Health Department would administer the vaccines or whether the government should buy them and ask community doctors to administer the shots, and whether shots would be voluntary.
Chinese University professor and head of respiratory medicine David Hui Shu-cheong said the government 'needs to provide some scientific evidence on why they want to immunise older children and its cost-effectiveness'.
The chairman of the Medical Association's advisory committee on communicable diseases,  Tse Hung-hing,  said the effectiveness of the vaccines depended on whether the WHO could predict the prevalent type of influenza.
With an accurate match, the number of confirmed flu cases could be reduced by up to 90 per cent for people aged one  to 15. Even if the vaccine was mismatched with the prevalent virus, there would be partial protection.
David Chan Moon-cheung, consultant to the Child Vaccine Concern Group, said there was an urgent need for flu and streptococcus pneumonia vaccination.
'Hong Kong should follow the recommendations given by the WHO and American Centres for Disease Control,' Dr Chan said.
The WHO recommended last year that all babies should receive the streptococcus pneumonia vaccine, which is provided free in the US,  Britain, Canada and Australia.
Dr Chan said both vaccines should be given to children aged six months to 12 years, adults who took care of them, the elderly and those whose immune systems were weak.
To guard against streptococcus pneumonia, children under the age of two have to take two to four doses of a vaccine that costs more than HK$500 per dose. Children aged above five and adults only need to take one dose of a vaccine that costs less than HK$200.
The Centre for Health Protection said yesterday it had investigated 11 new reports of flu-like outbreaks.
Hidden danger
Experts want a free flu vaccination programme to include streptococcus pneumonia
The proportion of children aged two to six years who carry the bug that causes streptococcus pneumonia: 20%



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