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Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Hong Kong : Alert over increase in respiratory viral infections

From Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection, excerpt :

" The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health has today (June 8) called on the public to maintain strict personal and environmental hygiene to prevent respiratory tract infections, as the CHP's latest surveillance data has shown an increase in the activity of respiratory pathogens in recent weeks.

A CHP spokesman said the department's Public Health Laboratory Centre (PHLC) has recently detected increases in adenoviruses and parainfluenza viruses.

The number of adenoviruses detected in the PHLC increased from 70 in the week ending May 28, 2011 to 99 in the week ending June 4, 2011. Four institutional outbreaks of upper respiratory infections caused by adenovirus were recorded in the week ending June 4, 2011, compared with one outbreak recorded in the preceding two weeks (May 15-28, 2011). A total of 44 persons were affected in the above five institutional outbreaks.

The number of parainfluenza viruses detected in the PHLC has also been increasing, from 233 in the four-week period from April 10 to May 7, 2011 to 316 in the recent four-week period from May 8 to June 4, 2011. A total of three institutional outbreaks of upper respiratory infections caused by parainfluenza virus were recorded in the past eight weeks affecting 11 persons."

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