Gastroenteritis outbreaks among Hong Kong schools’ trips near 100 cases

Students and teachers from three Hong Kong schools who showed symptoms of gastroenteritis after going on separate exchange trips to Shaoguan could have fallen sick after eating contaminated food from the same restaurants, authorities have said.

The Centre for Health Protection said on Tuesday evening that the number of students and teachers from the three schools who had fallen ill remained at 52, as authorities continued to investigate a slew of potential mass food-poisoning events.

“The Centre for Health Protection could not rule out the possibility that some of the cases were infected by consuming contaminated food and has notified the Guangdong authority of the relevant restaurants,” it said, noting that members of all three exchange tours had dined at the same restaurants.

“Separately, a case vomited during the visit and more teachers and students subsequently fell ill after returning to Hong Kong. In this context, some of the cases may have been infected through person-to-person transmission or a contaminated environment.”

Authorities on Tuesday revealed that Lok Sin Tong Ku Chiu Man Secondary School and TWGHs Chen Zao Men College, both located in Kwai Chung, had experienced outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis, or AGE.

A cluster was reported at Sha Tin Government Secondary School a day earlier.