Hong Kong Raises Alert As China’s H7N9 Death Toll Grows
Hong Kong began to raise alert this week as three more H7N9 confirmed cases add to China’s total tally of 21.
The Chinese government’s Xinhua news agency has reported three new cases of H7N9 virus, bringing the country’s tally up to 21. Of the newly confirmed cases, two are from Shanghai while the other is from Anhui.
The Chinese government has revealed initial details about those afflicted, though it is still unknown whether the 59- and 67-year-old patients have had direct contact with poultry. The 55-year-old man from Anhui, on the other hand, is known to be a poultry worker.
The Hong Kong Department of Health has informed the general public that they have activated the Alert Response Level under the Preparedness Plan for Influenza Pandemic (PPIP) and have begun to take precautionary measures, which include elevating temperature surveillance at local borders and securing large supplies of drugs for treatment. Patients diagnosed with H7N9 can be treated with Oseltamivir or other respiratory medicine.
The China Food and Drug Administration have also released a statement reporting on the positive results of an anti-flu vaccination as a preventative measure against the H7N9 virus.
“The drug has been researched and developed independently by the China Academy of Military Medical Science for eight years,” the statement said.
How H7N9 is transmitted is currently still unknown, though Leung Ting-hung of the Centre for Health Protection claims that there is insufficient evidence to prove human transmissions.