Guangdong fears school epidemic
The public authorities have sent a letter to the parents of children in 12 schools. "The letter is alarming but it does not explain clearly what's going on," says a mother.
Shenzhen (AsiaNews/SCMP) The public authorities of Shenzhen in Guangdong have written a letter to parents of schoolchildren expressing fears of a possible epidemic caused by an unknown illness. The letter, which covered a dozen or so schools and kindergartens, has alarmed families.
"I was very surprised when I received the letter," said the mother of one child. "It's alarming and the situation seems to be serious. But there is no clear explanation about what's going on." Other parents have also complained that the authorities have not given a clear picture of the situation nor have they explained the nature of the illness.
In a primary school near Houhai, many parents said their children told them about sick classmates. Some classes were shut down, but teachers have denied there is an epidemic and have refused to answer to media questions. The Southern Metropolitan News reported that kindergarten teachers had been told to monitor their pupils.
Recently, in Nanshan district, many children suffered from dysentery. One parents said he saw more than 20 children under observation in hospital last week. Wu Bijun admitted his 20-month-old son to Xili hospital; he confirmed that many children had been hospitalised in the emergency ward and they appeared to be seriously ill. "The doctor did not explain to me what the disease was, just saying that it was infectious," he said. He said his son had fallen ill about two weeks ago: "He felt nauseous and had bad attacks of diarrhea after we visited a friend whose boy was suffering from the same disease."
On Wednesday, the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in Nanshan sent a letter to all families in the district, asking parents to take all the necessary precautions if their children should show symptoms of nausea and diarrhea. All patients have been asked to go to Xili hospital for treatment. Yesterday, however, calls to the Prevention Centre went unanswered. And doctors in Xili hospital said they had not seen any children sick with diarrhea in the past weeks. However the hospital registers for this period reveal that during this time, at least 12 children aged between four months and six years had been admitted with nausea and diarrhea symptoms.
Hong Kong's health department said it was normal for there to be widespread gastroenteritis in Guangdong in December. "The Guangdong officials will contact us if there is a special condition. However, so far we have heard nothing from them," a department spokesman said.
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10/02/2020 15:47
06/02/2020 09:27
