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The Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, today (October 31) briefed more than 50 consuls-general in Hong Kong on the Government's preparedness for influenza pandemic and listened to their concerns in view of the unprecedented outbreaks in different parts of the world.
In the briefing, Dr Chow assured that Hong Kong had been vigilantly preparing for a possible influenza pandemic and had taken various measures to minimise the risk of an outbreak of avian influenza.
The main aspects of the preparedness plan were early identification of the pandemic outbreak; early treatment of patients; timely research on the emerging virus; and sufficient public health measures to control human contact with the virus, Dr Chow said.
He guaranteed that Hong Kong was trying its very best to inform everyone of what was happening in Hong Kong and what information received from other places. He assured that Hong Kong would be able to detect early infection within the community and would help other places in the vicinity to establish their diagnosis.
"We have a reasonably high standard of medical care and our laboratories are well-equipped to detect viruses in a matter of hours. We have two World Health Organisation's reference laboratories in Hong Kong, one in the Department of Health and the other in the University of Hong Kong," he said.
Dr Chow felt that sharing of information and expertise within the region was important.
"We are bound to help out each other as much as we can, such as strengthening our infrastructure and enhancing our cooperation.
"If assistance is needed in contingency planning, Hong Kong stands ready to work with our neighbours and international organisations," he said.
Also attending the briefing, the Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Mrs Carrie Yau, said the Government had put in place a three-level response system for influenza pandemic, namely Alert Response Level, Serious Response Level and Emergency Response Level.
These levels are based on different risk-graded epidemiological scenarios relevant to Hong Kong, and each of them prescribes a given set of public health actions required.
"The preparedness plan provides a clear command structure for strategic decision-making, sets out distinct roles and responsibilities for different parties and establishes line of command for launching various types of operation," she said.
She told the consuls-general that the Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Bureau, the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, and the Chief Executive would be in command in alert response level, serious response level and emergency response level respectively.
The Controller, Centre for Health Protection, Dr Leung Pak-yin; and Deputy Director (Professional Services) of Hospital Authority, Dr Liu Shao-haei, also attended the briefing.
Ends/Monday, October 31, 2005
Issued at HKT 19:34
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