The Health Bureau (SSM) yesterday released its figures on infectious diseases recorded last month, with an increase in the number of cases of four types of infectious diseases compared with the previous month, totalling 417 cases – while the bureau recorded one fatal case of Group B Streptococcus infection late last month.
Among the 417 cases of mandatory declaration of diseases recorded last month, according to the bureau, the risk of respiratory illness showed a decline, with 145 cases of influenza recorded, a month-on-month decrease of 68.7 percent and a significant drop from nearly 5,000 cases in the same period last year; while the number of COVID-19 cases stood at four, a month-on-month decrease of 77 percent and a year-on-year decline of 83 percent.
For other infections, including scarlet fever, salmonella and Norwalk virus infections, there was an upward trend compared with the previous month, the bureau noted, with 36, 56 and 25 cases respectively, representing a two-fold increase over the same month last year, and 28.6 percent up from the previous month; an increase of about 1.2 times over the same month last year and 47.4 percent over the previous month; and a decrease of 3.8 percent compared with the same month last year but an increase of about 2.1 times when compared with the previous month.
Last month, the bureau noted, there were 16 cases of tuberculosis (TB), a decrease of 11.1 percent from 18 cases recorded in September last year and one case of legionnaires’ disease, as well as 98 cases of enterovirus infection, representing a decrease of 66.1 percent from the same month of last year 289 cases and a decline of 3.9 percent from the preceding month.
Meanwhile, according to a separate SSM statement yesterday, the bureau has recently received from the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre a report of four severe cases involving Group B streptococcal infection, according to its separate statement, which identified the infectees as local residents – three males and one female – aged between 60 and 86, two of them linked to contact with raw freshwater fish prior to the onset of the disease. One of them was pronounced dead on September 27 and the other was hospitalised.
More separate statements by the bureau yesterday noted that influenza-like illness and COVID-19 cluster infections were detected in a nursery on Rua do General Ivens Ferraz (筷子基南街) and in a secondary school on Rua da Prata (風順堂上街) on Sunday and last Tuesday, respectively, involving 13 crèche-children and five schoolchildren.
Meanwhile, the bureau logged on Monday Macau’s 15th travel-associated dengue fever case, in which the victim was identified as a 68-year-old local man living in Polytec Garden Building (Block 6) on Rua Central da Areia Preta (黑沙環中街), who visited relatives in Foshan City, some 100 km north of Macau, on October 7-10 and came down with fever last Wednesday.
Poster courtesy of Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety
