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Following is a transcript (English only) of the remarks made by the Secretary of Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong and the Director-General of World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, at a stand-up media session at the Hong Kong International Airport today (June 19):
Dr Yeoh: Dr Brundtland is here for a stopover and has very kindly agreed to say a few words. Dr Brundtland.
Dr Brundtland: Good afternoon, I come with the executive director of communicable diseases of WHO from the meeting that was just held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia which was a global SARS meeting. I took the opportunity to pass through Hong Kong on my way back to Europe. This is why I have been given briefings now from the health authorities and the Airport Authority, airlines about the screening procedures. I also on the plane saw the health certificate that all passengers fill in and of course the temperature checks that are here in place. We also saw during the meeting in Malaysia that worldwide screening has been happening in different ways but there are some certain principles recommended by WHO, especially exit screening. People leaving an area where the disease, SARS, is still spreading in the community. Here, as you know, there is screening both coming in and going out and that of course is even more systematic an approach if you have an infectious disease spreading, like we have had over the last three months or so with SARS. In fact, on Tuesday, it was 100 days since we made the global alert about this new and unknown disease. For many of us, reminding ourselves it is 100 days, we realise that time that now seems, in my mind, quite long, is no more than 100 days since we first heard about it, the press people and the public health authorities and the airlines authorities around the world. And we are now at a stage where it looks to be contained and that is going down in the places where the epidemic, the outbreak is not over. Here in Hong Kong, there has been quite a big outbreak but it is very much lower and coming down very quickly which is a very positive sign. And as you know, one of the first success story was Vietnam where one of the early outbreaks happened. Within a couple of months or even less, the whole outbreak was over because of the measures that the public health authorities were taking. Thank you very much.
Reporter: There are concerns in Hong Kong that the outbreak will come back some time in the winter. Do you share this concern? Do you think Hong Kong can cope with another outbreak here?
Dr Brundtland: Well, you see, no one can say with any certainty whether SARS can come back the next season. It could just appear from the human family if we control and get down to zero the outbreak in every country or area where it has started, it could disappear. But it could also reappear from animals into the human family at some stage which is why we first need to be vigilant now to get the outbreak over in every place and hoping the virus will disappear and not reappear at any earlier moment but non one can know before we see because this is a new disease we don't know how it will act in moving again, maybe from animal population into human population.
Reporter: Do you think Hong Kong has an urgency to build a CDC or an infectious disease hospital? Will you go ahead with the plan what sort of assistance will be offered by WHO?
Dr Brundtland: We are giving advice and support to all member states but the decision about whether a specific area creates this kind of institution decides on different kinds of infrastructure. It is not something that we have strong opinions about. What is important is there is a high level of surveillance that it is well done and that the institution and the capacity is sufficient and I have no doubt that Hong Kong will see to it that happens because Hong Kong has been very serious in its attempts and its actions with regard to bringing down the epidemic. This we have seen, so I have no doubt, that the necessary capacity building will happen in Hong Kong.
Reporter: In China, the outbreak of encephalitis....
Dr Brundtland: I don't know this specific report now about the encephalitis. This is something which we have, now and then, outbreaks in different countries and usually it gets known, it gets dealt with, so I have no other comment because I don't know the report you are referring to exactly now.
Reporter: It seems to me that history repeats itself. That it is exactly the Department of Health complained that they learnt this encephalitis from the news report, so in this regard, how do you make sure that the World Health Organisation will be ... its surveillance system to make sure the Mainland China reporting system as effective as Hong Kong system?
Dr Brundtland: I think generally it is a very important thing that all countries have an efficient and sufficient reporting system and that our international health regulations as they now are improved and negotiated in a new century that they will be much more up-to-date that openness and transparency will prevail, and that member states of the World Health Oganisation will agree in 2005 on updated and improved health regulations. Meanwhile, with the help of the press, with the help of NGOs, with the help of anyone who can inform or report as was happening around the world, we get a lot of information to our global alert and response network which has helped us even when countries are not obliged in a legal sense. People report and the press reports and then we can inquire and get additional information. So this is a more general comment on how the world should be working and how it needs to be improved based on our experiences.
Reporter: Dr Brundtland, if Hong Kong doesn't have new cases from now until Monday, will Hong Kong be automatically taken off the list of SARS affected areas...?
Dr Brundtland: When at least 20 days have passed since the last transmission in the community, when that has happened, then we change the criteria which we tell that this country is no longer a country with local transmission. So that will happen when the date is cleared.
Reporter: It doesn't happen automatically... we have to declare? Is that the case?
Dr Brundtland: Well, what's the difference? We do it routinely and this we put it on the website. People do not think it is true. So we will do that.
Reporter: If we don't have new cases on Monday, then I don't know whether we should say, oh, now Hong Kong is .....
Dr Brundtland: You know, an important point is we have to be sure anyone would think they know everything has to be certain that there is no case in some way that comes up in the last moment. You have seen in Canada, in Toronto, they certainly thought the outbreak was over and it was close to that, it was beyond the date after the 20 days, and it was off completely and new case occurred and a new outbreak occurred. So you know, we have to be aware that it is whether you have a new case or not that decides whether you have a new outbreak.
Reporter: We need the facts right before writing Hong Kong is now off the list.
Dr Brundtland: I would. I think it is a good idea.
Dr Yeoh: I think it is important that as Dr Brundtland says that we do our part to make sure we do not have any more cases in Hong Kong and then to report to the World Health Oganisation because it is not just a matter of automatically taking off the SARS affected list. Just making sure we do not have any more cases in Hong Kong and that's the work we are doing before we report to the WHO.
End/Thursday, June 19, 2003
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