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Following is a question by the Hon Michael Mak and a reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, in the Legislative Council today (October 29):
Question :
It has been reported that a private laboratory was commissioned by a private hospital to conduct Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ("SARS") virus tests last month, but the preliminary and final results of the test were inconsistent. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers of laboratories of public institutions (including those of universities) and those in the private sector that are capable of conducting SARS virus tests at present;
(b) whether it has issued guidelines to private hospitals and private medical practitioners on the appropriateness of engaging private laboratories to conduct SARS virus tests; if it has, whether such guidelines have been drawn up in accordance with the standards set by the World Health Organization ("WHO"); and
(c) whether it has issued standardised guidelines to public and private medical institutions specifying how samples should be taken from a patient's body for testing SARS virus and the items to be included in the test; if it has, whether such guidelines have been drawn up in accordance with the standards set by WHO?
Reply :
Madam President,
(a) There are six laboratories in the public sector which perform tests for diagnosis of the corona virus responsible for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). They are located at Queen Mary Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital and Tuen Mun Hospital, and the Department of Health's Public Health Laboratory Centre (PHLC). These laboratories conduct tests in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO), and are responsible for all confirmatory tests in the diagnosis of the SARS corona virus. Based on information available, we are aware that a private hospital and a private institute have conducted tests for detecting the SARS corona virus.
(b) WHO's guidelines on "Alert, verification and public health management of SARS in the post-outbreak period" advocate SARS tests should be conducted in a national or regional reference laboratory. To facilitate early detection and reliable testing, Department of Health (DH) provides free public health laboratory consultation service to private hospitals and confirmatory SARS testing for all hospital patients who require this test. DH has met with representatives of associations of medical laboratories, biomedical scientists, medical technology etc. to explain to them that SARS testing was still under development and that the WHO had published diagnostic criteria and advised that laboratory testing should only be undertaken in a national or regional reference laboratory. The private laboratories were advised to send the specimens to DH should any doctor in the private sector request SARS testing.
(c) Guidelines drawn up in accordance with WHO's recommendations are available to both the public and private sectors. The DH has distributed a guide to the private sector specifying the types of specimen to be collected, the transport medium, the information of the patient to be submitted together with the specimen, and the proper means of transportation for SARS samples. The guide has incorporated the WHO's recommendation on the use of laboratory methods for SARS diagnosis. The Hospital Authority has also formulated a set of internal guidelines on arrangements for diagnostic tests for SARS in accordance with WHO's recommendations.
We will closely monitor further recommendations of the WHO and ensure that laboratory testing and reporting systems are up to international standards.
Ends/Wednesday, October 29, 2003
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