Press Release - March 17, 2003

The following is jointly issued by the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

As at 1pm today (March 17), the admission statistics of healthcare workers who suffered from respiratory tract infection are as follow:

A. Staff of Hospitals/Clinics

Staff of the following Admitted to the Total
hospital/clinic following hospital Admission
(The numbers
in bracket
are those with
pneumonia symptoms)
_________________________________________________________
Prince of Wales Prince of Wales 41 (31)
Hospital
Kwong Wah Hospital 1 (1)
Princess Margaret 1 (1)
Hospital
Tseung Kwan O Hospital 1 (1)
Kwong Wah Hospital Kwong Wah Hospital 2 (2)
Pamela Youde Nethersole Pamela Youde 7 (7)
Nethersole
Eastern Hospital Eastern Hospital
Private Clinic Princess Margaret 3 (3)
Hospital
_________________________________________________________
56 (46)

B. Close contacts of Index Patient in Prince of Wales Hospital (Note)

Nature Admitted to hospital Total Admission
(the numbers in
bracket are those
with pneumonia symptoms)
_________________________________________________________
Medical students Prince of Wales Hospital 16 (15)
Family members Prince of Wales Hospital 23 (22)
& visitors
_________________________________________________________
39 (37)

Total admission (A + B) 95 (83)

Note: The Index Patient in PWH has just been identified following vigorous contact tracing from various possible sources by the concerted efforts of the Department of Health (DH) and Hospital Authority of the HKSAR. That Index Patient is most likely to be the source of infection of most healthcare workers in PWH. After identification of the Index Patient, DH hence carried out epidemiological study and has now been able to re-track and re-trace some patients, who have been admitted to and treated in PWH earlier, and there are some 40 patients.


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 e-bulletin at www.news.gov.hk/en/index.shtml.