Scarlet fever strain more virulent
Scientists at the University of Hong Kong have warned that the strain of scarlet fever that has already killed two children and infected dozens of others has mutated and become more contagious.
"This (mutation) may nicely explain the 'unusual' large outbreak of the scarlet fever in Hong Kong recently," Thomas Tsang, director of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said on Monday.
He added that the Chinese mainland and Macao also face widespread outbreaks of the disease.
Whether it's engineered or not I guess we will never know for sure. The population densities in that part of the world, stuff is going to spread and mutate more than in less crowded areas.
Scarlet fever hits Hong Kong
Scarlet fever infections have gone up around 5-fold in China, and 3-fold in Macau, about an hour by ferry from Hong Kong.
Given how China covered up SARS for so long, I wonder how long this has been on the slow burner in mainlaind China before popping up in Hong Kong?
edit on 2011/6/22 by whatisanameanyway because: link
