Shenzhen on alert for flu outbreaks

Caryn Yeo, Straits Times 16 Mar 08;

SHENZHEN - PATIENTS on drips filled an entire room and hospital beds overflowed into corridors.

This was the scene at two of three main hospitals that The Sunday Times visited yesterday in the mainland boomtown of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong.

Hospital staff and officials said that there has been an increase in the number of flu cases this year due to a longer cold spell.

But the good news is that the flu virus is less virulent this year, said provincial officials.

Five flu outbreaks have been reported across Guangdong province, two in the provincial capital of Guangzhou and one each in Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shaoguan.

Each outbreak involves at least 15 cases a week. No one has died from these outbreaks.

But news of the flu outbreak in Hong Kong, which has claimed the lives of a seven-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl, have apparently unnerved many parents in Shenzhen.

The deaths had prompted Hong Kong to order last Wednesday a two-

week closure of all primary schools and kindergartens - the first time such a drastic move has been taken since the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) outbreak in 2003.

Hong Kong confirmed late last Friday that gene sequencing on flu viruses from the two victims showed that no new, deadlier flu strains have emerged. Both children have since been found to be suffering from other illnesses.

Still, a 42-year-old Shenzhen mother told The Sunday Times yesterday that she now washes her daughter's hands and toys more frequently.

'You don't know what children touch and put in their mouths,' said the woman, who wanted to be known only as Madam Chen, carrying her two-year-old daughter Yu Lixiang in her arms.

They were waiting in line at the Peking University Shenzhen Hospital for Lixiang to receive a fluid infusion. The toddler had been having a cough for over two weeks, her mother said.

'I am usually not that afraid of her coughing but these days, it's better to be safe than sorry, especially with all these reports from Hong Kong,' she added.

With more than eight million people crossing the Shenzhen-Hong Kong border every month, officials here have kept a close eye on the situation in Hong Kong.

It has sent health experts to the territory for joint investigations.

Across the border in Hong Kong, the spread of flu appeared to be slowing with only one new outbreak reported yesterday.

There have been 19 confirmed flu outbreaks and 880 affected people since March 6. Most of the outbreaks occurred at schools.