Wong Tai Sin Hospital has reported an influenza A cluster involving 10 people — eight patients and two staff members. The patients are receiving isolation treatment, while the two infected staff members are on leave.
The eight patients comprise five men aged between 60 and 95 in the chest medicine ward, and three women aged between 82 and 94 in the convalescent ward. All tested positive for influenza A, and reports said their condition was stable.
The hospital said the patients and staff began developing fever or respiratory infection symptoms from 7 September. It has cleaned and disinfected the affected wards, strengthened infection-control measures, and reported the cases to the Hospital Authority and the Centre for Health Protection.
Separately, the Centre for Health Protection announced two severe influenza cases involving children. The cases were not linked to the Wong Tai Sin Hospital cluster, and neither child had received a seasonal influenza vaccination in the previous year.
The first case involved an otherwise healthy 11-year-old boy who tested positive for influenza A(H1). He was diagnosed with influenza complicated by septic shock and encephalitis, and remained in serious condition in a paediatric intensive care unit.
The second case involved a six-year-old boy with a chronic illness. He was diagnosed with influenza complicated by severe pneumonia and was admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital on 9 September. The information provided did not give his subsequent condition.
The Wong Tai Sin Hospital patients remain in isolation treatment and the two infected staff members are on leave. The hospital’s reports did not specify the cluster’s infection sources or the exact dates on which each person became infected.