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The Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, this morning (November 3) visited an elderly home in Aberdeen to see the implementation of the Government Influenza Vaccination Programme (GIVP) in elderly homes.
Running from today until March 31 next year, the programme will cover about 300,000 people in eight target groups recommended by the Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Disease (SCVPD) established under the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (DH).
Among them, about 60,000 elderly people living in more than 770 residential care homes will receive free vaccinations from today until November 28, followed by mop-up vaccinations until early 2009.
"The objective of providing free vaccination is to protect the elderly from complications of influenza infection by immunisation before the arrival of the peak influenza season," Dr Chow said.
Since 1998, the Government has been providing free vaccination to all elderly living in residential care homes in Hong Kong under GIVP.
"The programme has all along been well received, with coverage of over 90% of residents living in elderly homes in 2007," Dr Chow said.
As in past years, the DH's Visiting Health Teams will visit some 550 elderly homes to provide on-site vaccination to residents while free vaccines will be delivered to the remaining 220 homes where vaccinations will be done by in-house nurses.
Apart from elderly people living in residential care homes, the following target groups will also be covered by GIVP.
* long-stay residents of institutions for the disabled;
* elderly persons aged 65 years or above with chronic illness and who are being followed up in public clinics, as well as those aged 65 years or above receiving Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA);
* persons under 65 years with chronic illness receiving CSSA, and some long-stay Hospital Authority (HA) in-patients who have chronic illness;
* health care workers of the DH, HA and other government departments, as well as health care workers in elderly homes or institutions for the disabled;
* poultry workers or staff who may be involved in poultry culling operations;
* children between the age of six months and less than six years from families receiving CSSA; and
* pregnant women receiving CSSA.
People with chronic illness mainly refer to those who have chronic cardiovascular (except hypertension without complication), pulmonary, metabolic or renal disease; who are immunocompromised; children and adolescents aged six months to 18 years on long-term aspirin therapy; and those with a chronic neurological condition that can compromise respiratory function or the handling of respiratory secretions or that can increase the risk for aspiration, or those who lack the ability to care for themselves for their increased risk of complications and death associated with influenza infection.
As advised by the SCVPD, vaccines to be used for this year's GIVP will follow the recommendations of the World Health Organisation for the 2008/09 season (northern hemisphere winter), which will contain:
* A/Brisbane/59/2007(H1N1)-like virus
* A/Brisbane/10/2007(H3N2)-like virus
* B/Florida/4/2006-like virus
The DH has ordered 300,000 doses of influenza vaccines for the vaccination programme.
The CHP has also set up a hotline 2575 2789 to answer public enquiries on GIVP during office hours on weekdays.
To prevent influenza and other respiratory tract infections, the public are advised to adopt a healthy lifestyle and adhere to the following health advice:
* build up good body immunity by having a proper diet, regular exercise and adequate rest, reducing stress and not smoking;
* maintain good personal hygiene, wash hands after sneezing and coughing, and wear a mask when developing symptoms of respiratory infections;
* maintain good ventilation; and
* avoid visiting crowded places with poor ventilation, especially during peak flu season.
Members of the public may obtain information on influenza and influenza vaccination by calling the DH's health education (pre-recorded) hotline at 2833 0111 or visiting CHP's website: www.chp.gov.hk.
Ends/Monday, November 3, 2008
Issued at HKT 14:01
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