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The Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, said today (Wednesday) that the Government attaches great importance to public health in Hong Kong and will spare no effort in preventing communicable diseases.

During a visit to the Department of Health (DH), Mr Tung was updated by the Director of Health, Dr Margaret Chan and her colleagues on the various public health issues that occurred in Hong Kong in recent months.

He noted that the spate of cholera cases that occurred in early March had been brought under control and that there were no new local and imported cholera cases since March 21.

However, he expressed concern over the increase in food-borne infectious diseases in Hong Kong in the first quarter of this year.

According to DH's statistics, for the first quarter of 1998, there were 48 cholera cases, 97 bacillary dysentery cases and 144 food poisoning outbreaks involving 523 persons.

These compared to no cholera cases, 81 bacillary dysentery cases and 65 food poisoning outbreaks involving 299 persons in the same period last year.

Mr Tung said, "The Government and the community must join hands to do a lot more in order to improve our environmental hygiene . We must pay more attention to our personal and food hygiene."

He noted that Hong Kong's dense population and Hong Kong people's frequent contacts with other countries posed a great challenge to local public health workers.

Mr Tung said the DH played an important role in monitoring the trend of communicable diseases and such work was very important in safeguarding public health.

At the same time, he stressed the importance of community involvement and said that more should be done on an ongoing basis to educate the public on personal, environmental and food hygiene.

He learned that DH would launch a million-dollar publicity campaign before summer targeted at food-borne diseases and travellers.

To start with, DH produces a video on hygiene tips for travellers in conjunction with the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong. Copies of the video tapes are being distributed to travel agencies so that they can brief travellers before their departure for the Easter Holidays.

Two TV announcements of public interest, one targeted at food handlers and the other at general public, will be broadcast later in the month. To tie in with the publicity programme, DH has also produced posters and will distribute them through its Central Health Education Unit.

After the briefing, Mr Tung toured the Lam Tin Polyclinic where he saw a wide range of primary health care services provided by the Department. They include a student dental clinic, a maternal and child health centre and a general out-patient clinic.

End/ Wednesday, April 8, 1998

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