Hong Kong faces overlapping flu seasons, should discuss adding vaccine to recommended list of jabs, expert says
- University of Hong Kong paediatric expert believes surge could overlap with approaching summer spike
- After death of four children from flu this year, professor says it’s time to discuss adding jab to list of recommended shots for children
Hong Kong’s influenza infections are surging and the current flu season may overlap with an approaching summer spike, a medical expert has warned, adding the city should discuss including the vaccination on the list of recommended jabs for children.
He said statistics from health authorities showed the number of consultations on flu infections in both general outpatient and private clinics had soared while public hospitals had recently recorded daily full occupancy rates.
“We expect the summer flu season to come next, so it’s possible there will be an overlap between winter and summer flu seasons,” Kwan told a radio programme.
Since flu infections could persist from the first to second half of the year, there might even be “a series of flu seasons”, he added.
The fourth and latest case involved a six-year-old boy who had no history of poor health and had not received a flu jab. He died on Wednesday.
Laboratory tests on the boy’s respiratory specimen came back positive for influenza A subtype H1. A clinical diagnosis also indicated that his infection was complicated by encephalopathy, a group of conditions causing brain dysfunction.
The case underscored Kwan’s point that flu infection in children could lead to acute necrotising encephalopathy, which had a mortality rate of 70 per cent or had a chance of causing permanent disability after recovery.
Kwan maintained the most effective means of protection against flu was vaccination, yet many parents still had misconceptions about the vaccines and held back from getting their children inoculated.
Given the current severe situation, he said discussion was needed on whether flu shots should be added to the list of recommended jabs for children under the Hong Kong Childhood Immunisation Programme, which he said could help prompt hesitant parents to get their children vaccinated.
The programme recommends the schedule for a variety of immunisation for children such as hepatitis B, pneumococcal and measles vaccines.
The Centre for Health Protection recently warned that the season would last longer this year because of the city’s low vaccination rate, adding that the dominant flu virus strain had shifted from influenza A subtype H3, found in infections from January to March, to subtype H1 recorded in the most recent cases.
