The Hospital Authority has started a three-week enhanced surveillance programme, following notification from the Guangdong Health Department of a suspected human case of avian flu in Shenzhen.

Under the programme, public hospitals should report to the authority's e-Flu system all patients fulfilling the case definition of having pneumonia of unidentified etiology and who had travelled in the seven days before the onset of symptoms, to affected areas or countries with confirmed human cases of avian influenza.

The authority today received 10 pneumonia cases of unidentified etiology, involving five men and five women who had visited Guangdong and Hubei.

Public hospitals are providing rapid tests for these patients, and the cases have been reported to the Centre for Health Protection.