Hong Kong Shuts Schools in Flu Outbreak

All kindergartens and primary schools in Hong Kong are to close for two weeks after the deaths of three young children in a flu outbreak.

The schools will shut for the Easter holidays ten days early in an attempt to prevent the spread of the outbreak, the Hong Kong education bureau said.

"The flu season will continue for some time, so if we can start the [Easter] holiday season earlier, students don't have to go to school and risk infecting each other, we would stand a better chance of preventing this outbreak from spreading," said the health secretary, York Chow.

A senior government scientist has been asked to study the three deaths, which happened in the past week, and to gauge whether they were linked either to bird flu or to Sars, the severe acute respiratory syndrome that killed almost 300 people in Hong Kong in 2003.

A seven-year-old boy died yesterday at the city's Tuen Mun hospital, and his school closed today, Radio Television Hong Kong reported.

Law Ho-ming was admitted to hospital semi-conscious with fever and flu at the weekend. He died from serious encephalitis and swelling of the brain.

The two other victims were aged three and 27 months. No common factors between the deaths had yet been identified, the government said.

Another 30 students at the seven-year-old's school had flu-like symptoms, along with people in another 25 schools, hospital ward and a disabled residential home. Experts said there was no reason to fear a major flu outbreak.

Experts said there was no reason to fear a major flu outbreak. Infectious diseases expert Lo Wing-lok told Reuters the decision to shut the schools was excessive.

"I would say mortality in children, while tragic, does occur from time to time, this is not something indicating that we are facing a pandemic outbreak," Lo said.

A spokesman for the World Health Organization in Geneva said it was monitoring the situation.

He said: "It is important to remember that flu can be fatal, particularly in the elderly or the young and those with complicating conditions. It kills 250,000-300,000 people worldwide per year. Seasonal vaccination is the best defence for those vulnerable."