Hong Kong public hospitals to step up testing for rare rotavirus: disease expert
Hong Kong public hospitals will step up surveillance of a rare virus and test patients with severe diarrhoea, infectious diseases expert Yuen Kwok-yung has said, after it was found in a doctor who died shortly after feeling unwell.
The University of Hong Kong's chair of infectious diseases on Monday revealed the latest move following the release of findings on the death of a doctor initially thought to be linked with a group of oncologists suspected of being infected with a toxic strain of E coli.
The Centre for Health Protection
confirmed last Friday that there had in fact been no E coli outbreak in the oncology department of Princess Margaret Hospital in Kwai Chung, where the three doctors worked.
But group C rotavirus, which was known but rare, was found in various tissue samples of the doctor who died just three days after he developed diarrhoea
in February
'We need to continue to monitor whether a similar situation will happen,' Yuen, who led a team of experts assisting the investigation, told a radio programme.
'In the future, the Hospital Authority will test for this virus on patients with severe diarrhoea, especially those requiring treatment at intensive care units. If other diarrhoea-causing viruses cannot be found, we will test for group C rotavirus.'
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