Originally published on December 3, 2013
Hong Kong has confirmed its first human H7N9 case, a possible sign that the virus may be spreading beyond mainland China where it emerged earlier this year.
The patient is a 36-year-old Indonesian domestic worker who is said to have a history of traveling to Shenzhen, China to kill, cook and eat chicken. She is currently hospitalised at Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam and is in critical condition with severe pneumonia.
The patient's employers and their two children have also been quarantined after showing minor flu-like symptoms.
Secretary of the Food and Health Bureau Ko Wing Man said the bureau believes the woman contracted H7N9 in mainland China, according to a South China Morning Post report.
Hong Kong has since activated its flu contingency plan, which stipulates that all persons who have been in close contact with infected individuals must remain in their homes or in designated centres during the incubation period.
H7N9 has infected roughly 138 people in mainland China and one in Taiwan since the first case was reported earlier this year. The virus has killed 45 people, all in mainland China.
Virologists believe H7N9 emerged as a product of genetic reassortment between three distinct avian influenza viruses found in domestic poultry and wild birds in Asia.
Though there has been no evidence of sustained person-to-person H7N9 transmission, humans can readily pick up the virus when they come in close proximity with infected chicken, which are known to shed the virus in high concentrations in their mucus and feces.
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