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The Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, today (March 24) met with a visiting delegation led by the Director-General of Health Department of Guangdong Province, Professor Yao Zhibin, to further strengthen exchange between and ties of public health authorities of the two places.
Dr Chow said the close ties and heavy visitor flow between the two places heightened the risk of the spread of infectious diseases. Since the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao infectious disease notification mechanism had been put in place, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Health had been maintaining close cooperation relation with our Centre for Health Protection. The two authorities had also been providing accurate information and notification to one another.
"On a recent human avian influenza case in Guangzhou, we are grateful for the Guangdong Provincial Health Department, which notified Hong Kong of the suspected case promptly, to facilitate our early preparation. Hong Kong was also informed as soon as the case was confirmed, and personnel of the Centre for Health Protection was arranged to meet the experts of the Guangdong Centre for Disease Control and Prevention to learn more about the epidemiological works and information," he said.
Both sides agreed that given the threat of avian influenza, the two places would continue to enhance the notification mechanism with a view to safeguarding public health.
Ends/Friday, March 24, 2006
Issued at HKT 19:48
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