The Centre for Health Protection has received one influenza-like illness outbreak report, involving three students of the Hong Kong Institute of Education Jockey Club Primary School in Tai Po.

They outbreak involved two boys and one girl aged 7 and 8. Staff have visited the school and provided health advice.

It has also received today two reports involving a five-year-old girl and an 11-month-old boy under the flu surveillance arrangement set up with private and public hospitals. The girl is in Tuen Mun Hospital while the boy is in Queen Mary Hospital. Their preliminary flu tests are negative.

Among the 33 cases reported under the arrangement since March 13, 10 cases have been confirmed to have flu - nine have been discharged and one is stable.

For the other 23 cases who tested negative for flu, 16 were discharged, one died on April 23, and six patients were still hospitalised including a critically ill three-year-old girl in Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Her respiratory sample yielded positive to human metapneumovirus (hMPV).

This disease has been reported worldwide and known to cause respiratory tract infection, predominantly in children. It is transmitted by direct contact or through contact with contaminated secretions, with mild to moderate symptoms in healthy children.

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