# 5646
From Hong Kong’s Centre For Health Protection we’ve the latest daily update on Scarlet Fever cases. Over the past 48 hours a total of 60 new cases have been reported.
Although a great deal has been made over the detection of a `new, more contagious strain’ of Scarlet Fever (see When Old Bacteria Learns New Tricks), it would appear that more than one strain is contributing to the current outbreak in the region.
According to the latest update:
“Laboratory investigation showed that the isolates from the two fatal cases belong to different strains. emm typing of the isolate from 7 year-old girl and 5
year-old boy are Type 12 and Type 1 respectively.”
While the number of cases in Hong Kong has just passed the 500 mark, in mainland China more than 9,000 cases have been reported; double the rate seen most years.
