A respiratory medicine professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong expects Hong Kong’s influenza peak to continue through November, while clinical indicators remain above baseline. Two children have died since the season began in June.

The Centre for Health Protection’s head of the Communicable Disease Branch said respiratory samples tested positive at a rate of 10% to 12% in recent weeks, against a baseline of 4.94%. The public-hospital influenza admission rate was 0.46 to 0.67 per 10,000 people, compared with a baseline of 0.27.

Both measures had eased somewhat from a week earlier, the official said, but one week’s figures could fluctuate and were not enough to establish a downward trend. The professor said influenza A(H3N2) circulated at the start of the season in June, before A(H1N1) became prevalent in August. He attributed the prolonged season in part to lower community immunity to H1N1 after a long period without an outbreak of that strain in Hong Kong. He expects the season to last at least five months, longer than the previous year.

School outbreak reports have declined in the latest three weeks. Centre for Health Protection monitoring recorded 65 reports affecting 396 people from October 4 to 10, 47 affecting 245 people from October 11 to 17, and 27 affecting 145 people from October 18 to 24. The Department of Health said reports had reached about 90 a week in mid-September before easing over the following three weeks.

The Department of Health said schools generally did not need to suspend all classes because of an outbreak; the Centre for Health Protection would advise each school according to its circumstances.

The professor identified schoolchildren and older people as higher-risk groups, and advised parents to have children wear masks regularly and wash their hands frequently. The government’s seasonal vaccination outreach programme offers jabs at schools and childcare centres. Parents whose child’s school has not arranged outreach, or who want to act sooner, can take their child to a private clinic, he said.