The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health announced that as of 5pm on Monday (Oct 27), three new cases of chikungunya fever had been recorded.
The first case involves a 55-year-old female living in Wong Tai Sin. She is confirmed to be a staff member of a school at Fung Tak Estate after the CHP conducted active case finding following the first local case on Sunday (Oct 26).
A preliminary investigation revealed that she visited Shanwei in Guangdong between October 11 and 12, before she returned to Hong Kong and visited Shenzhen alone on October 19.
She developed a fever, rash and joint pain last Friday (Oct 24) and sought medical attention at the Accident and Emergency Department of Kwong Wah Hospital on Sunday evening.
Her travel companions to Shanwei and three household contacts are currently asymptomatic and under medical surveillance.
The Centre said her source of infection has yet to be confirmed as the patient stayed at two affected places including Shenzhen and the vicinity of Fung Tak Estate. It will carry out genome analysis to ascertain whether there is an epidemiological linkage with the confirmed local case on Sunday.
The second case involves a 67-year-old male living in Tung Chung. He has visited Foshan alone between September 29 and October 24. He developed a fever and joint pain last Thursday (Oct 23).
He sought medical attention at the Accident and Emergency Department of North Lantau Hospital the following day upon returning to Hong Kong. He has three household contacts who are currently asymptomatic and under medical surveillance.
The third case involves a 76-year-old female living in Tseung Kwan O. She visited Guangzhou and Huizhou in Guangdong alone between October 17 and 26.
The patient developed a fever and joint pain on October 22 and sought medical attention at a hospital in Guangdong. She returned to Hong Kong on October 26 and sought medical attention at the Accident and Emergency Department of Tseung Kwan O Hospital.
She has two household contacts who are currently asymptomatic and under medical surveillance.
As the 67-year-old male and 76-year-old female patients stayed in Guangdong during their incubation period, the CHP considered that they were infected during travel and these two cases were classified as imported.
