bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

knowledgeQuestion

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Samuel Chan

Patsy Moy

The deadliest Ebola epidemic in history continued its spread yesterday, as a brief scare in Hong Kong highlighted the risk of an outbreak in the city. 
A Nigerian man, 32, who arrived from the Ebola-stricken African country on Thursday, was rushed to hospital yesterday with vomiting and diarrhoea, early symptoms of the virus. However, tests proved negative.
While health experts believe Hong Kong is unlikely to see an Ebola outbreak, they have stressed the need for vigilance, given the city’s role as a transport hub and proximity to Guangzhou, home to Asia’s biggest African community.

The man at the centre of yesterday’s scare was staying at a guest house in Chungking Mansions, Tsim Sha Tsui, a maze of restaurants, shops and hostels.
He was first taken by ambulance to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Ho Man Tin, before being put into isolation at the Infectious Disease Centre at Princess Margaret Hospital  in Kwai Chung  for tests.
He was the second person to test negative in the city after a local woman who fell ill on her return from Kenya last week.
A Health Department spokesman said it had “adopted preventive strategies … in line with those recommended by the World Health Organisation”.
Ebola has claimed almost 1,000 lives this year, mostly in West Africa’s Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, with two deaths in Nigeria. The Hong Kong government last week announced that it would quarantine people from affected areas who displayed Ebola symptoms.
Watch: What is the Ebola virus?

The department is advising visitors from the four countries to seek immediate treatment if they fall ill. But the government has admitted it would be difficult to keep tabs on all visitors from the affected countries; 10,000 are said to arrive each year.
“In view of the latest development, we advise travellers to avoid unnecessary travel to the affected areas including Lagos in Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone,” it added.
Romania yesterday became the latest country to report a suspected Ebola case. A man was being tested in Toronto, Canada, and tests on a Saudi man who died last week proved negative.

Ebola is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids from an infected person. There is no approved cure or vaccine.
In the event of an Ebola case, all those in close contact with the patient would be put in quarantine and banned from leaving the city under the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance, Centre for Health Protection chief Dr Leung Ting-hung said last week.
But Leung played down the idea of Chungking Mansions becoming ground zero for an outbreak. He said many of the Africans living and working there had long lived in the city.
There was little concern in the complex yesterday. Diner Annie Lit was not worried. “I don’t think there will be an outbreak in Hong Kong, where hygiene has improved a lot [after the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak],” she said.
China will send disease control experts to West Africa while flights carrying medical supplies left for the region yesterday, Xinhua reported last night.
The World Health Organisation, which last week declared Ebola an international emergency, said on Saturday that vaccine trials could start soon.
Additional reporting by Danny Mok, Agence France-Presse, Xinhua


Hong Kong fire safety orders from 16 years ago not complied with at building where blaze erupted, killing 5

How Wong Kar-wai’s 1994 ‘quickie’ film Chungking Express made Faye Wong a movie star – and Chungking Mansions a cultural destination

Discover HK’s Best-kept Secret: Hidden Indian Food Gem in Chungking Mansions

We Went on a Food Hunt in Chungking Mansions | City Bites Hong Kong Edition Ep5

Chungking Mansions

Nigerian staying at Hong Kong's Chungking Mansions tests negative for Ebola

Chungking Mansions was at the centre of an Ebola scare. Photo: Nora Tam

Chungking Mansions was at the centre of an Ebola scare. Photo: David Wong

An outbreak of Ebola has killed nearly 1,000 people in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria since it was first reported in March.


The Nigerian man arrived in the city on Thursday and had been staying at a guest house in Chungking Mansions. Photo: David Wong

Chungking Mansions is a group of linked high-rises in, Tsim Sha Tsui which houses lots of cheap guest houses. It is popular with backpackers and African mobile-phone dealers. Photo: David Wong  

Ebola-hit Liberia fears starvation as quarantine blocks food supplies 

A poster warns people in Monrovia of the dangers of Ebola. Photo: AP

News

Hong Kong

Chungking Mansions guest rushed to isolation, but tests prove negative


The deadliest Ebola epidemic in history continued its spread, as a brief scare in Hong Kong highlighted the risk of an outbreak in the city.


Update | Nigerian staying at Hong Kong's Chungking Mansions tests negative for Ebola

Chungking Mansions guest rushed to isolation, but tests prove negative