Health officials today announced three more H7N9 avian flu infections, two in women from separate Chinese provinces and one in a man from Hong Kong who had recently traveled to the mainland, raising the number of 2014 cases to eight.
The pace of new H7N9 infections in China and some of its closest neighbors has been picking up since October, after a hiatus in the outbreak over the late spring and summer months when very few cases were detected. The steady reports of new human cases comes when people in the region are preparing to celebrate and travel for the Lunar New Year holiday at the end of January and into the first few days of February.
Two cases on the mainland
One of the patients is a 51-year-old woman from the city of Foshan in Guangdong province, according to a statement from Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP). Her symptoms began on Dec 31, and she was hospitalized on Jan 3, where she is in critical condition.
An investigation into the source of her H7N9 infection found that she had bought and slaughtered a live chicken at her home on Dec 31, according to the CHP. Authorities are monitoring 21 of the woman's close contacts, and so far no other illnesses have been found.
Her illness marks Guangdong province's 10th case, most of which have been reported over the past several weeks.
The other new case from China's mainland involves a 54-year-old woman from the Jiangsu province city of Nanjing, according to a separate statement from the CHP. Few details were available, other than that she is being treated in a hospital and that her respiratory specimen tested positive for H7N9 there yesterday.
Hong Kong's third case
Meanwhile, the CHP said it is investigating an H7N9 infection in a 65-year-old man from Hong Kong, the city third confirmed case. Like Hong Kong's other two cases, the man got sick after returning from a visit to the mainland.
He got sick on Jan 3, was hospitalized yesterday, and is in critical condition. The CHP noted that the patient has an underlying medical condition.
The man had traveled to the nearby city of Shenzhen in China's Guangdong province with a family member on Jan 1, the CHP said. He walked past one of the city's wet markets that day, but did not enter the facility.
The man's close contact doesn't have any symptoms but will be quarantined for 10 days. Health authorities are monitoring the man's other contacts, which include hospital patients who stayed in the same room as the man, health workers, and hospital visitors.
Hong Kong health officials also said today that respiratory tests have ruled out H7N9 in two Hong Kong residents, a 4-year-old girl and her 37-year-old mother, who had close contact with a 31-year-old man who was recently sickened by the virus in Shenzhen. The girl is still in quarantine.
Newly reported H7N9 death
In other developments, a man from Guangdong province who has been hospitalized since his H7N9 case was first announced in the middle of December has died from his infection, according to a report from Xinhua, China's state news agency. The man was from Dongguan City and appears to be a 39-year-old man whose infection was confirmed by provincial officials on Dec 15, according to an earlier report from the CHP.
So far 156 people have been sickened with the new H7N9 virus since it emerged in China last March. Of the case total, 151 were detected in China, 3 in Hong Kong, and 2 in Taiwan. The five infections found outside of China's mainland all had a travel history to parts of China, where the virus is thought to be spreading to people from infected market poultry. The man's death lifts the number of fatalities in the outbreak to 49.
WHO confirms prior Taiwan case
In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday confirmed Taiwan's latest H7N9 case, which involved an 86-year-old man from the mainland's Jiangsu province who got sick during his travel with a tour group.
According to a WHO statement, his symptoms began on Dec 19, 2 days into his group's stay in Taiwan. He was hospitalized on Dec 24 with bilateral pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome. The man is intubated and is on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment.
The rest of the tour group members have returned to China, except for the man's two daughters, who haven't shown any symptoms, the WHO said.
See also:
Jan 8 CHP statement on Guangdong province case
Jan 8 CHP statement on Jiangsu province case
Jan 8 CHP statement in Hong Kong case
Jan 7 WHO statement