A Hong Kong woman who contracted H5N1 bird flu, the first case in the city since 2003, has been quarantined in intensive care and the government will inspect poultry markets over the next few days.
There was no indication of human-to-human transmission of the influenza, and eight close contacts of the 59-year-old woman are showing no symptoms, Secretary for Food and Health York Chow told reporters in Hong Kong on Thursday.
The woman visited China from Oct. 23 to Nov. 1 with her husband and daughter, and didn’t have contact with live poultry or farms there, the Centre for Health Protection said in a statement posted on the government website. The Hong Kong government raised its flu response level to “serious,” Chow said Wednesday.
“We think the risk of avian influenza in Hong Kong is not that significantly higher than before,” Chow said. “But since there is one case, we have to be very careful as it might actually point out its source of infection, which might give rise to another case.”
The woman’s husband said she visited a poultry market and ate chicken, said Thomas Tsang, controller of the Centre for Health Protection.
Six people died in Hong Kong in a 1997 bird flu outbreak that prompted health authorities to cull all of the chickens and ducks in the city.
