Flu season may last five months after girl dies
HK01 · 12 SOURCESabout 10 hours ago5 MIN
Summary
A 12-year-old girl with an underlying medical condition died on October 20 after testing positive for influenza A (H1) and developing septic shock, disseminated intravascular coagulation and multiple organ failure. The Centre for Health Protection said she had no travel history during the incubation period, had not received the 2026/27 seasonal influenza vaccine, and one household contact recently had mild upper respiratory symptoms. On October 22, Controller of the Centre for Health Protection Edwin Tsui Lok-kin (徐樂堅) said the current summer flu season is likely to last at least five months because the dominant circulating strain shifted from influenza A H3 to H1. He also said vaccine uptake across age groups has fallen from a year earlier, with more than 900,000 doses given so far, about 10% fewer than the same period last year.
Key Points
- The girl developed fever, cough and diarrhoea on October 17, later vomited, and her condition worsened on the night of October 19.
- She was taken to Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, suffered cardiac arrest, was resuscitated, and admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit.
- Laboratory testing confirmed influenza A (H1), and clinicians diagnosed septic shock, disseminated intravascular coagulation and multiple organ failure before her death.
- Hong Kong has recorded 25 severe paediatric influenza cases this season, including 20 discharged, one serious, two critical and two deaths.
- Tsui said child vaccination rates for ages two to five and six to 11 are each about five percentage points lower than last year.
Why It Matters
Health officials expect flu activity to remain high for weeks, and say the longer season is being driven by a change in the dominant virus strain rather than evidence of a more severe or drug-resistant variant. For Hong Kong families, schools and elderly care settings, the immediate concern is lower vaccination uptake at a time when school outbreaks and severe adult cases remain elevated.