A 7-year-old girl has fallen ill with a mystery respiratory illness in Hong Kong, bringing the total number of such cases to 32, health officials confirmed Thursday. Experts are carrying out urgent tests to try to identify the cause of the outbreak which has struck down handicapped children aged 4-16 at the Caritas Medical Center in the Sham Shui Po district. One 11-year-old girl died on November 9. The results are not expected until next week, but health officials say it is not flu or SARS, the illness which killed 299 people and infected 1,755 in 2003 in Hong Kong. On Monday, the hospital at the center of the outbreak was forced to close its pediatric wards to new admissions. It has also tightened infection control measures by isolating infected patients and restricting visits to close relatives wearing masks. Wards were also disinfected. Children and staff are being carefully monitored to prevent the illness spreading, a department of health spokesman said. Hong Kong set up a Center for Health Protection to coordinate responses to health emergencies in response the outbreaks of SARS and avian flu in the former British colony. The territory and southern China where SARS originated are now entering the winter flu season when experts caution that killer viruses are more likely to strike. The Department of Health on Thursday also announced one new case of Japanese encephalitis and warned locals to step up their mosquito control measures. The 40-year-old man is the fifth local infection from the mosquito-borne virus this year compared to only two in the whole of the 11 year period between 1992 and 2003.
