Health | Hospital publicizes new infant death, doctors call for vaccination

The Health Bureau (SSM) revealed the news of a child’s death induced by influenza. The case was only made public on Saturday, but happened some weeks earlier, after a three-year old boy was sent to the public hospital on April 5 for high fever with respiratory infection symptoms. The infant eventually died on April 8 due to epilepticus, consequential brain edema and multiple organ failure.
Doctors from the Conde de São Januário Central Hospital (CHCSJ) explained that the main cause of the child’s death was not the influenza B strain of the virus but multiple symptoms; however, the flu aggravated his primary diseases as an inducement.
The bureau held a press conference on Saturday, revealing the fatal case and calling for the public to strengthen their influenza prevention by vaccination. The head of SSM’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Lam Chung, stressed that the child could have been prevented from the infection if he had been vaccinated.
According to the bureau, the hospital had repeatedly suggested inoculating the infant against the flu, but the family was concerned that the vaccination might worsen his underlying congenital diseases, namely congenital growth retardation and history of epilepsy.
The hospital further explained that the reason why the case wasn’t released until two weeks after the incident was because “it took several doctors to discuss and seek the cause of death, and that the case might cause panic among citizens if it was released without a precise investigation result.”
Moreover, the authorities revealed that the boy was reported as sick during public holidays, where he didn’t go to creche or out of the house. The family’s domestic helper also showed respiratory infection symptoms during the period, but whether it was related to the child’s infection was uncertain.
In Macau, the most common influenza cases are caused by the H1N1 and H3N2 strains of influenza A, as well as by influenza B. The peak period for the highly contagious infection is from Janurary to March every year. According to the city’s monitoring date on influenza cases, in the past month, the pediatric department has seen the prevalence rate of influenza decline from 135 to 117 in every 1,000 children. However, the proportion of influenza B patients increased to 50 percent of all flu cases this month, representing five times that of the percentage in Febrary.
While most patients are able to recover from the flu on their own within 2 to 7 days, the elderly, infants and chronically ill patients face a bigger chance of developing complications or even death. The SSM stressed that vaccination has been the most effective means of preventing infectious disease; it urged that everyone in the community be vaccinated, in order to build an immunity barrier for vulnerable groups.
Accordingly, SSM has been offering free vaccinations since last September to those aged between 6 months to 17 years old, and above 60, as well as other residents with chronic diseases. So far, 86,000 residents have been vaccinated against influenza. The bureau said that the current vaccines are said to be effective against the popular influenza B virus, but are not effectively preventing the H3N2 strain. Therefore, it has introduced 10,000 doses of a new vaccine to prevent H3N2, and plans to start vaccinatig elderly residents in early May.

SSM refutes rumors over vaccine’s safety

SSM stressed in a press release yesterday that some parents have a mistaken understanding about vaccines, as there have been rumors that have “seriously distorted the effectiveness and side effects of vaccines.” The bureau indicated that vaccines can barely cause any severe harm or death, while the chance of developing severe harm after contracting a disease that could’ve been prevented by vaccination is much higher. In addtion, SSM attributed Macau’s low occurrence of severe and fatal cases of influenza during flu seasons to “a relatively high coverage of vaccination.”