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Following is a question by the Hon Lau Kong-Wah and a reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, in the Legislative Council today (November 19):
Question:
To prevent the cross-boundary spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ("SARS"), the authorities have since March this year progressively implemented a new measure at various immigration control points to require passengers passing through them to complete and submit health declaration forms. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number of passengers in each month who were required to be examined because the information provided by them indicated that they might have been infected and, among them, the number of those who were hospitalised for observation or treatment, together with details of such cases;
(b) whether it has reviewed if the measure to require passengers to complete and submit health declaration forms is effective in screening out SARS patients, and whether there were passengers who did not provide the relevant information in the health declaration forms for fear of causing delays to their cross-boundary trips; and
(c) whether it will consider adopting other measures to replace that of requiring passengers to complete and submit health declaration forms; if not, of the reasons for that?
Reply :
Madam President,
Since March 2003, the Department of Health (DH) has been working closely with other Government departments and organisations to implement a basket of control measures at all border control points to prevent the transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) through international travel. Apart from health education to travellers and temperature screening, health declaration is recommended by the World Health Organisation to prevent the spread of SARS and this recommendation has been implemented in Hong Kong in the past 8 months.
(a) As at November 16, 2003, more than 55 million passengers declared their health conditions when arriving at or leaving Hong Kong. A total of 5 311 persons reported sick, of whom 239 were referred to hospitals. The number of hospital referrals per month ranged from 24 to 44, with an average of 32. Among the 239 persons referred, 59 required hospital admission and two of them were later confirmed to be suffering from SARS. Among the passengers requiring hospital admissions, 15 (25 per cent) were diagnosed to have upper respiratory tract infection; six (10 per cent) were pneumonia; and nine (15 per cent) were other respiratory tract infections.
(b) Health declaration enables early detection of people with SARS-like symptoms or exposure to the disease, facilitates contact tracing, and helps maintain the public's vigilance against SARS. The effectiveness of the health declaration requirement is reflected by the co-operation generally demonstrated by passengers in declaring their health status and the early detection of people with SARS or other infectious diseases for further management. We do not have the information on whether there were passengers who did not provide the relevant information in the health declaration forms for fear of causing delays to their cross-boundary trips.
(c) We shall continue with the health declaration requirement for the time being, as it helps people maintain vigilance and heighten awareness against SARS. Nonetheless, the control measures against SARS including health declaration are being constantly reviewed.
Ends/Wednesday, November 19, 2003
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