Five more hospital workers showed symptoms of pneumonia yesterday, bringing the total to 29 in an outbreak that has raised fears of a mystery illness. But Hong Kong's top health official insisted no epidemic is afoot.
"We are not talking about any outbreak in the community," said Yeoh Eng-kiong, Hong Kong's secretary for health, welfare and food. Two of the hospital workers were in a serious condition but most were stable, officials said.
Forty-three workers from four Hong Kong hospitals have fallen ill and 29 displayed signs of pneumonia, raising fears that an atypical form of pneumonia that recently killed five people in Guangdong Province had made its way to this former British colony.
Health officials were also trying to see if there are any links to a disease that spread through a hospital in Vietnam, forcing its closure early this week.
An American businessman from Shanghai became ill with atypical pneumonia on a trip to Hanoi and infected 26 workers there before being flown to Hong Kong, where he died Thursday.
The WHO has issued a global alert.
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