HA To Procure Drugs Amid 'worst Seen' Malaria Cluster

Health authorities on Friday said the recent cluster of imported malaria cases was the worst they have ever seen, adding that they will keep an eye out on passengers coming from high-risk areas and purchase more medication to treat infected patients.

Thirty people who flew in from Africa were recently found to have the mosquito-borne disease – 19 of them are being treated at public hospitals here.

A Chief Manager of the Hospital Authority (HA), Dr Lau Ka-hin, said another patient died on Friday afternoon – the second death in the cluster.

He said the patient's condition was already very bad when he was admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Wednesday.

He said the HA has procured more drugs to treat malaria in case there are more imported cases.

"Our experts said they have never seen such cases in which patients carry such a high number of malaria parasites," he said.

The Centre for Health Protection, for its part, said it would keep an eye on travellers arriving from Africa, especially those from Guinea, and send them to hospitals if they show symptoms.

However, it had earlier said that the risk of local transmission is extremely low because the species of mosquito that spreads the virus – a female Anopheline mosquito – had not been found in urban areas in Hong Kong in recent years.

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