Toddler Dies From Anthrax

June 11, 2003

HONG Kong health authorities implemented precautionary measures today - including widespread disinfection - after a two-year-old boy died after contracting anthrax.
A post-mortem report released yesterday showed the boy had been infected with anthrax, most likely from having eaten contaminated food.

Authorities were also going to address a group of parents and teachers from the boy's school to discuss precautionary measures, a health department spokeswoman said, after a thorough disinfection of the school.

Neither family members nor classmates of the boy, who was not identified, displayed symptoms of anthrax, which include abdominal pains, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Health authorities indicated there was no evidence to suggest the boy was victim of a bioterror attack, although there was no indication yet of the source of the infection.

His family kept no pets and he had not been in contact with any animals - common forms of anthrax transmission.

The Department of Health has reported only three other cases of anthrax in Hong Kong in the past two decades: two in 1982 and one in a 13-year-old boy in 1994.

The anthrax scare has evoked significant health concerns in a shaky Hong Kong, which is still reeling from a three-month epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that killed 290 people.

Agence France-Presse

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