Press Release - March 20, 2003

The Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong outlined at a press conference today (March 20) the investigative work that led to the discovery that four of the eight "clusters" of people who had contracted the unique type of atypical pneumonia were directly related to the ninth floor of a hotel in Kowloon, where three had stayed and the fourth visited in the same few days at the end of February.

Dr Yeoh said researchers surmised that the layout of the hotel might have contributed to the spread of infection.

Dr Yeoh said Hong Kong had a total of 165 atypical pneumonia patients today, compared with 145 the previous day (March 19) and 111 on March 18.

Another eight people were being kept under observation, bringing the total number of confirmed and suspected cases to 173, compared with 150 the previous day.

One more patient had died, bringing the total number of fatal cases to six.

The confirmed fatal cases were a medical practitioner who came from Guangdong, an American-Chinese businessman who had also passed through Southern China and Vietnam, and a middle-aged man who was the original "index case" at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital. Two patients who were already very sick with serious liver and heart illnesses and the pneumonia may have added to their problems.

A relative of the Guangzhou professor was the latest person to die, Dr Yeoh said, while a total of 99 health care workers and medical students had been admitted, 94 with pneumonia symptoms, compared with 92 in total and 87 confirmed the previous day.

"The main increases today have been in patients and their relatives," Dr Yeoh said. This number had risen to 74, up 16 from the 58 "close contacts" on Wednesday.

Dr Yeoh was joined by the Deputy Director of Health of the HKSAR, Dr Leung Pak-yin, and the HKSAR’s Hospital Authority's Director (Professional Services and Public Affairs), Dr Ko Wing-man.

Dr Leung said five school students had been infected who were children of pneumonia patients at the Prince of Wales Hospital.

Schools had been notified and parents told about the cases. The HKSAR’s Department of Health had visited the schools to do contact tracing, and had found no children in the schools and their relatives had been affected, he said.

It would continue to keep the contacts under surveillance and follow up with health seminars and advice for parents.

Dr Yeoh said the general advice for defence against the disease still held: wear a mask, if you are coughing or have a sick family member who has respiratory symptoms; avoid crowds; wash hands before eating and after using the lavatory; eat a balanced diet; get adequate ventilation and don't go to work or school if you are coughing.

"The higher risk group continues to be health care workers with close contact to pneumonia patients, and their families," he said.

For updated information and latest news on respiratory tract infections, please visit the special home page on the subject at www.info.gov.hk/info/infection-e.htm, and the HKSAR Department of Health website at www.info.gov.hk/dh/ap.htm as well as the e-bulletin at www.news.gov.hk/en/index.shtml.