Health News
Girl, 6, becomes seventh child victim of mystery Hong Kong disease
Sep 5, 2008, 2:05 GMT
Hong Kong - A 6-year-old schoolgirl has become the seventh child victim of a mystery illness in Hong Kong, health officials confirmed Friday.
The girl died on Wednesday, one day after being treated and discharged for fever and vomiting at a hospital emergency unit, the city's Department of Health said.
Her death is the seventh unexplained child death in the past five months and the third in less than a month, a department spokesman confirmed.
The deaths have caused unease among parents across the city of 6.9 million and provided an uncomfortable reminder of the 2003 SARS outbreak, which killed 299 and infected 1,799 in Hong Kong.
In the weeks before her death, the latest victim had visited Shenzhen and Guangzhou in southern China, from where the SARS virus spread to Hong Kong in 2003.
However, no traces of the SARS virus have been found in any of the recent cases, which are being logged under a new paediatric illness surveillance programme set up this year.
The Department of Health pointed out that in an average year, 15 to 20 children aged 9 or younger died from often-undiagnosed infectious diseases.
The previous two children to die were an 11-month-old baby, who fell ill on August 29, and a 3-year-old, who fell ill 21 days earlier.
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