18 people quarantined in HK over MERS infection
Print Edition
HONG Kong health officials yesterday located the two South Koreans who had been in close contact with a Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) patient but had earlier refused to go into quarantine.
A total of 18 people who came into close contact with a 44-year-old South Korean MERS patient while on a flight into Hong Kong are now at the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village in the city’s Sai Kung district where they will undergo two weeks of medical observation.
As of yesterday afternoon, two people were refusing to be tested, but officials succeeded in tracking them down and persuaded them to go into quarantine, Health Secretary Ko Wing-man said.
As the incubation period of the disease can be more than 10 days, it is important they are isolated to avoid the possibility of spreading the deadly virus, he said.
The missing pair were located in an apartment building in Causeway Bay, Ko said.
The need for the 18 people to be quarantined arose after a South Korean MERS patient flew into Hong Kong from Seoul on Tuesday before heading to the Chinese mainland by bus.
He is thought to have contracted the disease from his father, and traveled against the advice of doctors.
He is currently being treated at a hospital in Huizhou, south China’s Guangdong Province.
Health authorities in Guangdong said last night that they have isolated 47 people who had been in close contact with the South Korean man.
They are all under medical observation and none has yet to show symptoms, the health authorities said.
The Guangdong Disease Prevention and Control Center has issued an appeal to anyone who traveled by bus from Hong Kong to Huizhou at 4:46pm on Tuesday to contact the center immediately.
MERS was first identified in humans in 2012. The virus is similar to that which causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.
The World Health Organization has reported more than 1,000 cases of MERS globally and more than 400 deaths.
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