Health officials are seeking postmortem on Hong Kong man to find possible link
Health officials want a postmortem examination carried out on a pig farmer who died mysteriously from acute pneumonia earlier this month to establish if the case was related to two other deaths.
The Centre for Health Protection is still investigating the cause of death of three pig farmers, two from Hong Kong and one from Guangdong.
A 44-year-old pig farmer surnamed Sin died from pneumonia this month, as did another farmer, surnamed Yip, 62, in June. Both had visited the mainland before their deaths, with Sin travelling to Dongguan and Yip visiting Shenzhen.
A pig farmer from Nanhai in Foshan , Guangdong, also died from pneumonia on Tuesday. Both Sin and the mainland farmer tested negative for Sars and bird flu.
So far seven people have called a government hotline, set up on Thursday, with one 42-year-old slaughterhouse worker reporting that he had pneumonia in September and was admitted to Northern Hospital. He has since recovered.
Speaking after meeting other government departments to discuss the investigation, Centre for Health Protection consultant Thomas Tsang Ho-fai said the investigation would take a month or more. However, initial findings showed the two local cases may not be linked and the centre had less than a 50 per cent chance of identifying the viruses.
