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Hong Kong was a very important place in SARS outbreak as Hong Kong had made significant contribution to global efforts, the visiting Executive Director of Communicable Diseases of World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr David Heymann said today (June 15).
"Hong Kong has shown the way of open and transparent reporting despite concern on the economy," he said.
"I would like to thank Hong Kong for the transparency with which it has given us the information that we need to immediately deal with the disease.
"Hong Kong reported in early March of health worker infection, the information that we needed to make a decision on the global alert on March 12."
Dr Heymann made the above remarks at a welcome reception hosted by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, today.
Dr Heymann also commended Hong Kong for providing updated information to the WHO and shared with the world, the science that made coronavirus first isolated and identified in Hong Kong, outbreak control and patient management.
As globalisation was a very important factor today for all infectious diseases, Dr Heymann looked forward to Hong Kong's contribution to the global effort over the coming months on continued case identification through surveillance.
He also looked forward to Hong Kong's contribution in continued collaboration with China, particularly Guangdong Province in studies to identify animal reservoir and risk factors for transmission to humans and continued participation in major WHO networks of global surveillance for influenza and other infectious disesases.
Welcoming Dr Heymann to Hong Kong, Dr Yeoh thanked the valuable advice and assistance provided by the WHO for bringing SARS under control globally and for the particular assistance to Hong Kong.
Dr Yeoh also thanked everyone in the community for their contributions in the combat against the disease.
"Just three months ago Hong Kong first came face to face with a new disease, SARS, of which we had little or no knowledge. Hong Kong took a heavy blow not only to the health sector but to everyone in the community and had a great impact on our social life, on our own personal life and on our economy.
"However, our community has risen to the challenge and everyone in the community has united to fight this global challenge," he said.
Also attended the reception were over 100 distinguished guests including consul generals, legislators, leading figures of chambers of commerce and tertiary institutions, chairmen of various statutory Medical Councils and Boards, and government officials.
(Dr Heymann's powerpoint presentation on "SARS: Global Alert, Global Response" can be inspected at the web site of the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau at www.hwfb.gov.hk.)
End/Sunday, June 15, 2003
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- Presentation on SARS global outbreak by World Health Organisation Executive Director of Communicable Diseases, Dr David Heymann, at the welcome reception PDF fomat (1.5M) | Power Point format (4M)
