Posted by
Riceman
17 yrs ago
A case of the H1N1 virus was confirmed by the Government this evening at 8pm (a 25yr old tourist from Mexico who stayed at the Metropark, Wanchai).
It was only a matter of time before it arrived here but it's still a worry...
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Ed
17 yrs ago
Hong Kong seals off hotel where H1N1 flu found
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong confirmed Asia's first case of the new H1N1 flu virus in a Mexican traveler on Friday, prompting authorities to seal off the hotel where the 25-year old man had been staying.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang told reporters the man arrived on a China Eastern flight on Thursday afternoon after a stopover in Shanghai.
He had a fever and went to Ruttonjee Hospital for help on Thursday evening, Tsang said. The Mexican is now in hospital in a stable condition.
The confirmation of the H1N1 infection was made by a laboratory at the University of Hong Kong.
"He didn't leave the hotel (except to go to hospital) because he was feeling sick," Health Minister York Chow told a news conference.
Two companions of the Mexican and a friend he met in Hong Kong were now in isolation wards at another hospital, he said.
Tsang said he had accepted the recommendation of government health experts to seal off the Metropark hotel in Wanchai district where the Mexican was staying.
Dozens of police wearing surgical masks stood guard both inside and outside the hotel late on Friday. Hotel guests were prevented from leaving while outsiders could not get in.
"I assure you the Hong Kong government will try its best to conquer the virus," Tsang said. "At the present moment, I would prefer to do it more stringently instead of missing the opportunity to control the spread of the virus."
Chow said the hotel had about 200 guests and over 100 staff and they would be quarantined for seven days. He urged those who were not in the hotel as well as taxi drivers who took the Mexican to the hotel and to hospital to report to authorities.
The drastic action left some visitors distressed.
Cinmei Sinaga from Indonesia was left standing for hours on the pavement with her eight-month-old daughter.
"I don't feel that they are doing anything to help me. I just need my passport but we cannot go to another hotel and my baby needs to sleep. I feel scared," she told Reuters.
The affluent financial hub on the south coast of China is widely seen as one of the best-prepared Asian cities to deal with the new H1N1 flu virus, given its experience in handling sporadic outbreaks of H5N1 avian flu, as well as SARS in 2003 which killed 299 people.
The order to seal off the Metropark hotel brought back memories of how SARS started in Hong Kong in February 2003. A doctor from mainland China who knew he had been infected with SARS had traveled to Hong Kong to try to seek medical help.
But before he could get admitted to hospital, he infected eight people in a lift lobby of the Metropole hotel where he was staying. Some of them then went on to spread the disease in Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and Vietnam.
To tackle the H1N1 flu virus, Hong Kong authorities have beefed up surveillance at airports and hospitals, improved public health response systems and stockpiled over 20 million doses of the anti-influenza drug Tamiflu.
Photos and Full Story http://uk.reuters.com/article/burningIssues/idUKTRE54054T20090501?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0
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wrong Ed...this is the hotel (your image is the one in Causeway Bay/Tin Hau
http://www.metroparkhotels.com/admin/photo/gallery/hotel_photo-381.jpg
let's not allow misinformation to create further unneccessary panic
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funbobby got the right site. The hotel is in Wanchai.
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Have looked on HK government public health website to see if they plan to close schools. No announcement so far, but has anyone heard any news about this?
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Todge
17 yrs ago
Mamadavid:
According to SCMP ...
... Despite stressing that the government needed to adopt stringent measures to control spread of the virus, Mr Tsang said schools would remain open and public gatherings and exhibitions would continue as normal, but under strengthened hygiene conditions. "Under the present circumstances, I would rather act rigorously than miss the chance of containing the spread of the virus in Hong Kong," he said. ...
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not really...as he was already sick, no need for him to don the biohazard suit...if you're not aware (as I think is the case with MOST people I see walking around healthy with masks on) the mask SHOULD BE worn by sick people to contain their own excretions, NOT as a preventative measure by healthy people...there are many ways for a virus to enter your body (eyes, hand to mouth, etc.) so it's a bit silly for all of these people to rush out and empty the shelves of masks when they hear 'FLU!!!!"
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no...the mask he was wearing (likely n95) is sufficient to contain whatever he would likely cough up...i read your post as 'why didn't he have the "Ebola" mask on'...and the answer is, he doesn't need protection from the virus as he already contracted it...
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micks
17 yrs ago
I think this virus maybe more deadly than sars!
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The outbreak seems more mild than what the media was hyping up. It is worth remembering, though, that the Spanish Flu disappeared during the summer months of 1918, only to come back much stronger in the autumn. It's not over yet...
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FKKC
17 yrs ago
Heard from the news last night (not confirm yet) that this H1N1 was originated from US, not Mexico. Does anyone know anything about this?
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Heard that too, Al Jazeerah this morn...two cases in Cali. that were contracted BEFORE the outbreak in Mexico...the plot thickens...also now a herd of pigs in Canada that caught it FROM a man returning from Mexico...
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FKKC
17 yrs ago
Aha, the BULLY - just like in schools. The weak taking the blame......
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more hotel quarantines now, from China Daily, in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other mainland cities, of passengers on the "Typhoid Manuel' flight from Mexico to Shanghai/Hong Kong
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whats people views on face mask, everyone seems to be wearing them in hk and yet in uk where there are more cases noone seems to be using them
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Face masks (the disposable kind) are only really useful if you don't want to spread an infection that you already have. If you are not sick they are pretty useless at stopping infection if just used "as clothing". Of course, if you are a nurse in a ward it will be useful. But in that case you are following all kinds of other decontamination procedures as well.
The virus is airborne. If someone sneezes fifty meters away a tiny droplet can travel on the wind and into your eye. The mask will not obviously not help in this case. Perhaps we should all wear protective eyewear...
Disposable masks do have the psychological benefit of reminding us to keep our distance socially and (hopefully) to remind us to wash hands frequently and such.
The masks that would really help are respirators. But I don't see people wearing those.
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The N95s will certainly stop any virus from getting in or out but its so suffocating that you have to be so determined or so scared to wear them. The normal triple layer masks would stop most virus from getting out but not so good in stopping them coming in, so to be totally effective all the sick people have to wear them, and change them regularly.
The UK has not had the experience of a SARS like HK, hence the more relaxing attitude, I suppose...
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To be sure, SARS has a big influence here.
Then again there are several flu variants doing the rounds every year and yet few people get flu shots. The "normal" flus can kill you just as well as this new one, as evidenced by multiple deaths, for example last year.
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cd
17 yrs ago
Agree, most people forget that 'flu' can be a killer, thousands of people worldwide die every year from the flu, I expect no more will die this year from flu than any other year, its just that this particular strain has a name.
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What makes me sick (get it!) is the people whinging on the radio that HK Government has gone too far shutting the hotel, blah, blah, blah.
People have a short memory here and forget how deadly SARS was and i commend the HK Government (for once) for stepping up and quickly too.
Just waiting to hear now how many of those in the hotel start asking for compensation, especiall the Korean who says he's missed out on a multi million contract, yeah right!
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Sure, they "stepped up" with the hotels and such. But why don't they then propagate for inoculation versus the "classic" flu strains? That would save more lives yearly than this stuff...
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got this link from another forum...shows how ludicrous the Metropark quarantine really is.
http://www.zonaeuropa.com/weblog.htm
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dalba
17 yrs ago
the world has lost common sense.
two figures:
How many deaths in the usa linked to "the swine flu" so far?
answer: 2
How many deaths in the usa (alone) linked to conventional seasonal flu?
answer: 30000 to 50000 (estimation made by the WHO.
WHO WANTS TO BE AFRAID?? MAYBE IT IS ABOUT TIME WE START TO THINK RATHER THAN TO ACT LIKE COWARDS AND IRRESPONSIBLE PEOPLE... WHAT A NONSENSE...
(During a typical year in the United States, 30,000 to 50,000 persons die as a result of influenza viral infection. Frequently cited numbers are 20,000 deaths each year, and 37,000 annual deaths. About 5-10% of hospitalizations for influenza lead to fatal outcome in adults...)
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"got this link from another forum...shows how ludicrous the Metropark quarantine really is.
http://www.zonaeuropa.com/weblog.htm"
Interesting read but not sure if this article is really accurate? It asserts that the Mexican (index patient) had gone to the HKCEC Gifts & Premiums Fair in the morning before going to the hospital in the evening. But from what I've read in the papers (and on govt sites), he supposedly never left the hotel after checking in as he felt ill. Which is correct?
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"Interesting read but not sure if this article is really accurate? It asserts that the Mexican (index patient) had gone to the HKCEC Gifts & Premiums Fair in the morning before going to the hospital in the evening. But from what I've read in the papers (and on govt sites), he supposedly never left the hotel after checking in as he felt ill. Which is correct?"
then let's discount the trip to the trade show....which sounds like bs in fact since he arrived in the afternoon and went to the hospital in the evening...think about all the other contacts he would have had, face to face or at least closer than MOST of the people in the hotel, before being quarantined (immigration, hosp. waiting room, baggage claim,
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cd
17 yrs ago
Agree with dalba,And cinderella, there are so many different types of flu, that the doctors don't know how to treat most of them.
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