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https://scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3044730/china-pneumonia-singapore-reports-first-suspected-case-linked East Asia
China pneumonia: Singapore reports first suspected case linked to Wuhan
- Patient is a three-year-old girl with a travel history to Wuhan, but had not visited seafood market where some of the infected worked
- The number of cases reported in relation to the Wuhan outbreak rose to 44 on Friday, up from 27 on Tuesday
Most of the cases have been traced to the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the suburbs of sprawling Wuhan. Photo: Simon Song
Singapore has reported its first suspected case of pneumonia that’s possibly linked to the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where there’s an ongoing outbreak of a mysterious lung infection.
The patient, a three-year-old girl with a travel history to Wuhan, is in stable condition and has been hospitalised for further assessment and treatment, the Ministry of Health said in a statement on Saturday. She has been isolated as a precautionary measure.
Preliminary tests showed that the case was positive for Respiratory Syncytial Virus, a common cause for childhood pneumonia.
The World Health Organisation is monitoring the situation in Wuhan and is in active communication with its counterparts in China, where an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the outbreak.
As of Friday, 44 people had been diagnosed with pneumonia, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said.
Some of the infected worked at a fresh seafood and produce market in the city. The girl in the suspected case in Singapore had not visited the Huanan seafood wholesale market associated with the cluster, according to the health ministry.
Singapore implemented temperature screening at Changi Airport from January 3 for all travellers arriving from Wuhan.
Additional thermal imaging systems were put in place on Friday at Hong Kong’s international airport to check the body temperature of travellers arriving from Wuhan.
Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has urged any travellers who develop respiratory symptoms to wear surgical masks, seek medical attention and let doctors know where they have been.
The most common symptom has been fever, with shortness of breath and lung infections in a small number of cases. There have been no clear indications of human-to-human transmission of the disease.
Workers clean drains at the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the suburbs of sprawling Wuhan. Photo: Simon Song
In Hong Kong, officials launched a new response mechanism for infectious diseases on Saturday morning, setting it to “serious” level, the second of a three-tier scale.
The number of suspected cases reported in Hong Kong had increased to eight on Saturday, but by evening, none of these were found to be an unidentified strain.
In 2002-2003, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome killed hundreds of people around the world, with most of the fatalities registered in China and Hong Kong.
Besides SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, Hong Kong also was hit by bird flu in 1997 and swine flu in 2009.
Additional reporting by Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
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