Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    SHENZHEN’S center for disease control and prevention (CDC) yesterday raised the seasonal pandemic flu alert to one, the highest level, which means that the flu is spreading through the city quickly.

    For seven days until Tuesday, the alert for the flu stayed at two, the second-highest level, meaning that the number of flu cases was increasing sharply.

    “Every year from March to July, it is the season when influenza spreads,” Ma Hanwu, a deputy director with the CDC, told reporters yesterday.

    “We update the flu alert every seven days and upgraded it to the highest level today because we saw an increase in the number of flu cases.”

    The number of influenza-like illnesses , a good indicator of influenza virus activity, at outpatient departments in the city’s surveyed hospitals was 4.31 percent two weeks ago and 5.43 percent during the last week, the CDC said yesterday.

    The city’s health commission said the virus also spread at schools in the city.

    Ma said that getting a flu vaccination is an effective way to avoid being infected and the vaccine is available at most community clinic. The vaccine costs about 80 yuan (US$12.28), according to Ma.

    “Starting from the end of February, the number of children catching influenza has been rising,” said Wu Benqing, the director of the Shenzhen People’s Hospital’s pediatrics department. “We’ve been receiving about 600 patients every day, much higher than usual.”

    The city’s health commission also warned that Shenzhen may have imported Zika cases because of the city’s strong business ties with regions where the Zika virus is spreading.

    As it becomes warmer, the mosquito-borne Zika virus could spread, the commission said.

    “Once there are imported cases, there is a possibility for the [Zika] virus to spread,” the commission said in a statement.

    Shenzhen has never had a reported Zika case. Nationwide China has reported 10 Zika cases.

    In February, the numbers of people in Shenzhen with influenza, foot-and-mouth disease, and diarrhea were higher than a year earlier, health commission statistics showed.