A nine-year-old Hong Kong girl has contracted a rare bacterial infection and is fighting for her life in hospital after visiting Japan during the Easter holiday, with health authorities contacting the other tour group members as a precaution. The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said on Friday that the girl, who was in a critical condition in the paediatric intensive care unit...

Hong Kong’s largest public hospital will open to patients in phases from October, with the new 2,400-bed facility in Kai Tak set to take over the services of Queen Elizabeth Hospital and become a healthcare hub for Kowloon. The Hospital Authority said on Friday that the first phase of services at Kai Tak Hospital, located on Shing Cheong Road in Kowloon Bay, would start in Octob...

Hong Kong’s smoking rate fell to 8.5 per cent last year, missing an ambitious target of 7.8 per cent, but health authorities have hailed the success of the city’s tobacco control strategy, which led to a 30 per cent decline in overall cigarette consumption. Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau told a Legislative Council meeting on Friday that the rate – the prevalence of daily ciga...

Hong Kong food safety authorities have ordered an immediate halt to the sale of oysters from a French brand after the product was possibly linked to suspected gastroenteritis cases in the Netherlands. The Centre for Food Safety on Wednesday ordered the trade to suspend imports of raw oysters from the French brand Josephine that were produced and packed between March 5 and 25. Tr...

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has launched a five-year study into why Chinese people often enjoy long lifespans, and hopes to recruit 500 residents aged 90 or older for biomarker analysis using advanced blood testing technologies. HKUST president Professor Nancy Ip Yuk-yu, who is leading the research, said Hong Kong urgently needed to uncover the hea...