China: Brain damage cases put HK on alert
China
Brain damage cases put HK on alert Yu Aitong
Nov 28, 2009
linkHong Kong health authorities are on the alert after six swine flu patients in Shenzhen were found to have brain damage.
Mainland flu specialists warned doctors to pay special attention to patients suffering from headaches, vomiting or convulsions. This is the first time swine flu has been linked with brain damage. The doctors in Shenzhen said they were investigating whether there had been other cases elsewhere on the mainland.
One child in Shenzhen with viral encephalitis died and five were in serious condition after they contracted swine flu. One remains in a coma.
Dr Liu Yingxia, a specialist on Shenzhen's swine flu team, said:
"We have discovered among swine flu cases in Shenzhen that A(H1N1) frequently attacks patients' brains, which was not mentioned in the third version of the swine flu diagnosis and treatment [report] issued by the Health Ministry [last month]." Chief physician Dr Zhou Boping, head of the Shenzhen No3 People's Hospital, said five of the patients contracted swine flu this month.
Children were particularly vulnerable, he said.
Liu said other new symptoms were emerging, such as higher temperatures.
"Temperatures for swine flu patients did not tend to exceed 39 degrees [Celsius] from May to September; but now temperatures are over 39 degrees, and 41 degrees is quite common." She also suggested changing the definition of high-risk groups. At present, they are defined as children under the age of five and adults over 65. But only one child under five in the city has contracted the virus, and no one over 65. She said most sufferers were aged from five to 48, with those under 14 most affected.
In Hong Kong, Undersecretary for Food and Health Professor Gabriel Leung said officials would keep in touch with mainland authorities. He said the winter peak flu season might start earlier than usual this year and authorities were ready to deal with it.
The city recorded another critical swine flu case yesterday: a 49-year-old female patient with a history of systemic lupus erythematosus - a chronic, auto-immune connective-tissue disease - and high blood pressure, who is now being treated at Tuen Mun Hospital.
Meanwhile, health authorities in Guangdong are concerned that hospitals in the province may not be able to handle an outbreak. Based on predictions that up to 90 per cent of its 100 million population could contract the virus, Guangdong's 240,000 beds would be insufficient, said Liao Xinbo , deputy chief of the provincial health department.
SCMP