Hong Kong shuts schools amid flu outbreak

By Tan Ee Lyn

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong children stayed home on Thursday after the government shut elementary schools for two weeks to contain a seasonal flu outbreak as experts probed the deaths of four children.

Two of the children were infected with seasonal flu while the causes of illness in the other two were not known. A fifth child, a 3-year-old boy, was in stable condition in hospital.

The health scare has not been linked to H5N1 bird flu but the government's decision on Wednesday to close the schools brought back memories of 2003, when an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome hit Hong Kong.

The government-appointed expert panel will try to pin down why more young children seem to be infected this year and the reason for the deaths, said Health Secretary York Chow, who announced the closure of kindergartens and primary schools late on Wednesday night.

"If there are two deaths related to flu even before the peak, then we need to do something to minimize the numbers in the weeks to come," Chow said, referring to two of the children -- a girl aged 3 and a boy aged 7.

Experts say the viruses will need to be analyzed to see if they may have changed in any way. Even small changes can cause a bad flu year.

"If it is (a drifted strain) then more people could get sick because it is something they have never been exposed to and have no immunity against," said Leo Poon, a virologist from the University of Hong Kong.

But Poon said there was no reason to panic.

"This year, there seem to be slightly more flu cases. But from what I can see, we get a bad flu year every few years. I don't think it is very unusual or different from previous years," he said.

Parents however were not so sure.

"You can see that many people in Hong Kong are a bit scared of such viruses. It's not like before when kids would just have regular cough and fever. Now, you just don't know how serious any outbreak might be. I am very worried," said Mrs Kwan, a mother of a 10-year-old child.

(Additional reporting by James Pomfret; Editing by Nick Macfie)