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China on dengue fever alert after HK case
By Wang Zhuoqiong in Beijing and Liang Qiwen in Guangzhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-20 07:04
The Ministry of Health began monitoring dengue fever cases across the country
on Friday, as the infection of a Hong Kong woman by the mosquito-borne disease
was confirmed on Thursday.
Dengue fever is listed as one of 13 infectious diseases that require a
nationwide inspection by the ministry.
Deng Haihua, the ministry's information office director, said "the move is to
ensure updated prevention and control of the infectious disease."
Supervision is being carried out at 16 state-level monitoring stations in
five regions including South China's Guangdong, Hainan and the Guangxi Zhuang
Autonomous Region, East China's Fujian Province and Southwest China's Yunnan
Province.
Last month, seven dengue fever cases were found on the Chinese mainland, and
one person died.
Dengue fever has become a major international public health concern in recent
years.
No vaccine is available for dengue fever, and the infection does not spread
directly from person to person, the ministry said.
This renewed monitoring comes after a 19-year-old Hong Kong woman was
stricken with dengue fever and hospitalized this week, making it the 12th dengue
case in the territory this year.
The woman travelled to the Philippines on August 4 and came back to Hong Kong
on August 9, the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health of the
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region said while confirming the imported case.
She is now in a stable condition after suffering from symptoms of fever, cold
and rashes on August 10.
In neighbouring Guangdong Province, fears that the disease was brought from
Hong Kong were eased yesterday.
"No dengue fever case has been reported in Guangdong so far," said Zou Qin,
director of Centre for Disease Control and Prevention of Guangdong Province.
The provincial government will do its best to prevent the disease from
breaking out, he said.
"The monitoring measures on the disease will be implemented in major cities
including Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Shantou and Zhanjiang," Zou added.
Outbreaks of the disease occurred in Fujian in 1999 and in Zhejiang in 2004,
with a small number of cases occurring in other places in the
country.
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