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Yesterday in When Old Bacteria Learns New Tricks I wrote about the outbreak of what appears to be a new strain of Scarlet Fever in Hong Kong. Starting today, and until this outbreak is brought under control, Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection has announced their intention to publish daily updates on new cases.
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| Hong Kong CHP |
Today, a link to the first of these updates, an alert issued on the investigation of another child's death, and links to several media reports that provide more detail on the new characteristics of this mutated bacterial strain.
Dr. Thomas Tsang, director of the Centre for Health Protection, is quoted in the media today as saying:
"The situation is rather serious at the moment. We are facing an epidemic because the bacteria that is causing scarlet fever is widely circulating in this region -- not only in Hong Kong but in mainland China and Macau."
Today's report lists 26 new cases in the past 24 hours. The following notice, was issued by the CHP today.
Suspected fatal case of scarlet fever under investigation
The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health is investigating a suspected fatal case of scarlet fever involving a 5-year-old boy.
The boy presented with fever from June 15. He was admitted to Princess Margaret Hospital on June 19 after sudden deterioration in his condition. The boy developed toxic shock syndrome and passed away today (June 21). According to his parent, the child had consulted a general practitioner for chickenpox earlier.
The patient's clinical diagnosis was scarlet fever and toxic shock syndrome. A laboratory test on his blood specimen revealed gram positive cocci. Further tests are being conducted by the hospital to confirm diagnosis.
The Public Health Laboratory Centre under the CHP will also carry out tests on any positive isolate obtained. Further investigation is ongoing to collect more complete clinical information from the parents and doctors who have seen the child.
The kindergarten that the boy attended, SA Tin Ka Ping Kindergarten in Sha Tin, had no other scarlet fever cases, but an ongoing chickenpox outbreak since May 4 has affected 11 other students aged between 3 and 5. As a precautionary measure, the CHP advised the kindergarten to suspend classes for seven days starting tomorrow (June 22). (Continue . . )
And lastly, several media reports that identify Erythromycin as the antibiotic that this new strain has developed resistance to, along with other details.
First, from China Daily:
Scarlet fever strain more virulent
By Carmen Zhang (HK Edition)
Next the transcript of a press conference by Dr Thomas Tsang presented by Radio Australia.
Outbreak of scarlet fever in Hong Kong
Updated
And finally, This from Channel News Asia.
Hong Kong declares scarlet fever outbreak
Posted: 21 June 2011 1940 hrs
As Dr. Tsang points out, while this outbreak is not as serious as SARS or Bird Flu, with thousands of cases reported on the mainland, increased virulence, and signs of antibiotic resistance - this outbreak is worthy of our attention.
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