A Hong Kong woman who contracted H5N1 bird flu has been quarantined in intensive care, and the city will inspect its poultry markets over the next few days, Secretary for Food and Health York Chow said today.
There was no indication of human-to-human transmission of the influenza, and eight close contacts of the 59-year-old woman are showing no symptoms, he told reporters in Hong Kong today.
The Hong Kong government raised its flu response level to "serious," Mr Chow said yesterday when the case was reported. The woman visited China from October 23rd to November 1st with her husband and daughter, the Centre for Health Protection said.
She did not have contact with live poultry or farms while there, the agency said. The woman's husband said she had visited a poultry market in China and eaten chicken, said an official at the centre.
While health officials cannot be certain about where the woman caught the disease, they see a "high probability" it was outside of Hong Kong.
The woman returned to Hong Kong on November 1st, showed flu symptoms one day later and entered hospital on November 14th with persistent fever, the government said.
Six people died in Hong Kong in a 1997 bird flu outbreak that prompted health authorities to cull all of the chickens and ducks in the city.
Bloomberg