HCWs may have contracted avian flu
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is assisting the Hong Kong Department of Health in investigating influenza symptoms in nine health care workers who were exposed to patients infected with avian influenza A (H5N1) virus. Family members of the patients are also being investigated for possible transmission.
Four cases of the virus, which previously was known to infect only birds, were identified in Hong Kong during the last half of 1997. The first case was a 3-year-old child who died last May from respiratory failure. Three national health agencies the CDC, the National Influenza Center in Rotterdam, and the National Institute for Medical Research in London independently identified the virus as influenza A (H5N1) last August. The second case, identified in November, was a 2-year-old child who recovered. Two additional cases were identified in December. One, a 13-year-old girl, also recovered. The other, a 54-year-old man, died.
"If any of the health care workers or family members with flu symptoms are found to be infected with the avian virus, it could mark the first evidence of person-to-person transmission," says CDC spokeswoman Katie Hoskins.
The primary objective of the investigation is to determine how the four victims became infected. CDC scientists also hope to determine whether other people in Hong Kong and Southern China are infected, and whether there is additional evidence of person-to-person transmission. The CDC says the situation in Hong Kong shouldn’t affect the current U.S. influenza season. t
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