The Center for Health Protection of the Department of Health of Hong Kong said Thursday that it had followed up on 50 new reports of influenza-like illness outbreaks affecting 305 people.

Most of these reports were verified after the cut-off time Wednesday, said the Center, noting that influenza-like illness maybe caused by influenza or other respiratory viruses.

The reported outbreaks comprise 27 primary schools and 16 kindergartens and childcare centers, five secondary schools and one correctional institution and one special school.

Under a new arrangement implemented Thursday between the Center and both public and private hospitals to monitor the trend of influenza-related complications in children (including severe pneumonia, myocarditis, shock, sepsis-like or encephalopathy), three reports were received so far with laboratory evidence of influenza.

They are one three-year-old boy (whose case was announced Wednesday) and two girls aged seven and eight respectively. Their current conditions are stable.

An expert group led by Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, chairman of the Scientific Committee on Emerging Zoonotic Diseases of the Center, convened the first meeting Thursday afternoon to thoroughly investigate the three recent fatal cases involving children amid the recent seasonal influenza peak.

(Xinhua March 14, 2008)