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HK schoolkids stay home after third flu death

Hong Kong ordered more than half a million primary and kindergarten students to stay home from school for two weeks starting yesterday after three schoolchildren died amid recent outbreaks of the flu.

The government has asked one of the territory's top scientists to investigate the three deaths. But the WHO said yesterday there was no sign that the situation in Hong Kong was anything but a regular seasonal flu outbreak.

The outbreak has not been linked to bird flu, which has been detected in birds in Hong Kong. Bird flu remains difficult for humans to catch, though scientists fear the virus that causes it could eventually mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans.

The new flu outbreak raised memories of the deadly SARS, which surfaced in southern China in November 2002 and later killed 299 people in Hong Kong. That disease ground the bustling financial center to a halt as locals avoided going out, while the government was criticized for not responding quickly enough.

The government has ordered all kindergartens, primary and special education schools closed for two weeks starting yesterday, Health Secretary York Chow (周一嶽) said. It was the first time the government has closed schools for public health reasons since SARS.

Chow said he acted quickly because "when you wait until you have all the data, it's too late."

He said he was particularly concerned that two of the three dead children were treated at the same hospital, and that children may be especially vulnerable to the disease.

Chow has also asked Yuen Kwok-yung (袁國勇), who studied SARS, to head a panel of experts to study the deaths.

The closure will affect nearly 560,000 students at 1,745 schools, based on enrollment figures from the 2006 to 2007 academic year.

There was not sign yet of the major public panic that followed the SARS outbreak five years ago. Residents have not started wearing masks en masse as they did during SARS.

Since March 6, health officials have recorded nine flu outbreaks in Hong Kong, mostly at schools, affecting 532 people in the territory of nearly 7 million.

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said the first child who died tested negative for all types of influenza viruses. The second child tested positive for the flu but also suffered from an underlying metabolic disease. The third -- a seven-year-old boy who died on Tuesday -- had both the flu and encephalitis.

Another WHO spokesman, Peter Cordingley, said yesterday from Manila that "this is just regular seasonal flu."

"There is nothing exceptional about what's happening in Hong Kong," he said, noting the territory has suffered worse flu outbreaks in recent years.
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