Officials in Hong Kong are investigating an outbreak of invasive Group B Streptococcus cases linked to handling freshwater fish.
The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health asked the public to not consume raw freshwater fish or aquatic products, and to handle such items with caution to avoid contact with wounds, including small cuts and scratches.
This past week, the Hospital Authority, an agency that manages public hospitals, told the CHP that 88 patients had tested positive for invasive Group B Streptococcus (GBS) in September and October, and provided specimens of 68 patients for genetic sequencing analysis.
This has shown that, amongst the 68 patients, 32 of them belonged to a variety of sequence type 283 (ST283), 27 cases are other serotypes or another strain of ST283, while the results for the remaining nine cases are pending.
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