The condition of a 13-year-old girl who previously was severely infected with influenza B deteriorated and passed away on Sunday (October 12), marking the first fatal case of pediatric influenza infection in the city since June last year.
The patient, who previously had been in good health, began experiencing symptoms, including fever, cough, sore throat, and runny nose, on October 5 and was sent to the Prince of Wales Hospital after fainting at home on October 9. She was transferred to Hong Kong Children's Hospital on the same day.
She was clinically diagnosed with influenza B with complications of encephalopathy, myocarditis, and shock, and was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit in critical condition and passed away Sunday.
The girl previously studied in TWGHs Wong Fung Ling College, where three classmates showed mild flu-like symptoms between October 3 and 9, all of whom did not require hospitalization. There have been no other outbreaks reported in her school classes.
It was reported that her household contacts showed no symptoms.
As of October 10, there have been a total of 337 outbreak cases of seasonal influenza in schools since the start of the school year in September, including 35 cases in kindergartens / childcare centers, 182 in primary schools, and 120 in secondary schools, according to Edwin Tsui Lok-kin, Controller of the Center for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health.
A total of nine serious cases of influenza in children and one death have been reported since the beginning of the school year, affecting children aged three to 17, with eight of them previously in good health.
The CHP urged schools and parents to arrange schoolchildren to receive free seasonal influenza vaccination to prevent seasonal influenza and its complications, as vaccination also reduces the risk of serious illness or death from infection.
