Hong Kong confirms first H7N9 bird flu case in recent visitor to Shenzhen

Health authorities in Hong Kong confirmed Monday that the city had its first case of H7N9 bird flu, after a 36 year old Indonesian woman was diagnosed with the virus. 

Secretary for food and health Ko Wing-man told reporters that the patient had had contact with poultry during a recent trip to Shenzhen. Ko said close contacts of the woman, who works int he city as a domestic helper, have been sent to the hospital. Four members of the woman's family are displaying symptoms of the virus. 

"We might not expect that this case is the only infection" in Shenzhen, Ben Cowling, associate professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health, told Bloomberg. 

In November, two cases of bird flu were confirmed on the Chinese mainland, a three year old boy in Guangdong, and an unidentified adult patient in Zhejiang. A separate strain of bird flu, H6N1, was also detected in Taiwan, where it seems to have been contained. 

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