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Less than a week ago - after seeing more than 250 outbreaks in schools and institutions in the first two weeks of 2019 - Hong Kong issued orders to close kindergartens and daycare facilities where outbreaks had already occurred (see Hong Kong Orders Nearly 200 Kindergarten & Child Care Centers Closed Over Flu).
A week later, the latest FluExpess (epi week 3) indicates the number of institutional outbreaks has more than doubled (n=517) again, eclipsing anything reported by Hong Kong in recent years (see charts above & below).
We've also seen a steady stream of reports from the CHP over the past week on high hospital occupancy rates, and severe pediatric flu cases (see here, here, and here).
As a result, the decision was made this morning to close all of Hong Kong's kindergartens and child care centers early for the New Year's holidays, in hopes of slowing this seasonal epidemic.
The Government announced today (January 24) that all kindergartens and kindergarten-cum-child care centres will start their Chinese New Year holidays early on Saturday (January 26) and will remain on holiday until the end of their originally scheduled Chinese New Year holidays.
The Education Bureau (EDB) has issued letters to schools to explain the measures and arrangements that should be in place during the holidays, including those relating to activities within and outside the schools, lunch arrangements and school bus services.
During the non-scheduled period of school holidays, schools should remain open. If necessary, students can go to school as usual. Schools should arrange for staff to be on duty to handle school affairs and parents' enquiries, and to look after any students who may arrive at school. Schools should clean their premises thoroughly to ensure environmental hygiene.
Parents should take measures to prevent influenza and pay attention to the health conditions of their children. Students should avoid visiting crowded places with poor ventilation. They should build up good body immunity by having a balanced diet, regular exercise and adequate rest.
The EDB will continue to keep close contact with the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health and provide support to schools when necessary.
Ends/Thursday, January 24, 2019Issued at HKT 15:21
This year's strain is predominantly H1N1, which tends to impact younger age groups harder than the elderly, as the following FluExpress summary explains.
Local Situation of Influenza Activity (as of Jan 23, 2019)Elsewhere in Asia, the CHP reports that flu activity remains high, and in some countries, is still increasing:
Reporting period: Jan 13 – 19, 2019 (Week 3)
- The latest surveillance data showed that the local influenza activity continued to increase last week. Currently the predominating virus is influenza A(H1).
- Children aged under 6 years were particularly affected as reflected by the very high number of outbreaks of influenza-like illness (ILI) in kindergartens and child care centres, as well as the high influenza-associated admission rate in public hospitals among children aged below six years.
- Among the severe influenza cases in adults, persons 50-64 years constituted a relative higher proportion (35%), as compared with 15% and 20% during the 2017 summer season predominated by influenza A(H3) and the 2017/18 winter season predominated by influenza B respectively.
- Influenza can cause serious illnesses in high-risk individuals and even healthy persons. Given that seasonal influenza vaccines are safe and effective, all persons aged 6 months or above except those with known contraindications are recommended to receive seasonal influenza vaccine. Particularly, children, the elderly and those with underlying illnesses are urged to receive influenza vaccination as early as possible.
Although school closures can be disruptive - particularly to working families - previous studies have shown a more profound effect can be achieved when the trigger is pulled earlier rather than later.
- In Mainland China (week ending Jan 13, 2019), influenza activity in southern and northern provinces continued to increase, reaching the peak of the influenza season currently. Influenza viruses detected were mainly influenza A(H1N1), followed by influenza A(H3N2), and there were few influenza B(Victoria)and B(Yamagata) detections.
- In Taiwan (week ending Jan 19, 2018), influenza activity continued to increase and was above the national baseline. The predominating viruses were influenza A (96.6%) in recent four weeks, with influenza A(H1N1) and A(H3N2) viruses co-circulating, but influenza A(H1N1) was on an increasing trend.
- In Macau (Jan 23, 2019), influenza activity remained at the peak level. The proportions of ILI cases in emergency departments remained at a high level. The most frequently detected influenza virus was influenza A(H1).
- In Japan (week ending Jan 13, 2019), the influenza season started in early December last year. Influenza activity continued to increase. The average number of reported ILI cases per sentinel site increased to 38.54 in the week ending Jan 13, 2019, which was much higher than the baseline level of 1.00. The predominating virus in the past four weeks was influenza A(H1N1)pdm09.
