More than 300 sought in tuberculosis scare

Health News

Jun 29, 2008, 4:24 GMT

Hong Kong - Health authorities were urgently trying to track down more than 300 people who may have been in contact with a teacher who died of tuberculosis, a media report said Sunday. Officials in both Hong Kong and Britain are trying to trace the potential victims who include nearly 250 schoolchildren, the South China Morning Post said. The search has been made more difficult because a laboratory report confirming tuberculosis sat in a doctor's in-tray for eight days. The territory's health department was notified the teacher, Clare Lennon, 29, had the disease two days after her death on April 24. The department learned about Lennon's death from friends, one of whom has been confirmed as having tuberculosis. Health officials said they wanted to contact 328 people who would be advised to be tested for the respiratory condition. They include 14 passengers on a Cathay Pacific flight, 247 schoolchildren aged six to 12, and 67 teachers, primary school staff and visitors to her isolation ward at St Paul's Hospital in the Causeway Bay district. She was admitted on April 10 and placed in isolation. The next day she was tested for the disease and the test was sent to another hospital, the Queen Mary, for analysis. Lennon flew to Britain on April 17 for treatment at a hospital in Torquay in southwestern England, but died six days later. St Paul's Hospital medical superintendent David Fang said 'TB was not suspected' when Lennon was allowed to fly to Britain. He acknowledged lapses in the hospital's reporting system and said steps were being taken to ensure that it does not happen again. Health officials contacted some of the people Lennon came into contact with, and Cathay Pacific gave the health department details of passengers sitting near Lennon during the flight.

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More than 300 sought in tuberculosis scare

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