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Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, at a media stand-up session at the Legislative Council Building today (January 20):
Reporter: The private doctor who had symptoms of GBS has been discharged from hospital. Do you know whether it is GBS that is directly related to swine flu vaccine?
Secretary for Food and Health: I think his diagnosis is quite certain as Guillain-Barrˆm syndrome (GBS), but it is very difficult to determine whether this has a direct relation as a result of the vaccination, or whether this is a result of other types of so-called stimulation of agent. In fact, the Centre for Health Protection has given the case summary to some international experts to seek their opinion on that. But I am really happy that he (the patient) has recovered so quickly and more or less completely within two weeks. This is a good sign that the treatment given to him is very effective.
Reporter: What about the second suspected case?
Secretary for Food and Health: There is quite a number of so-called suspected cases, but none of them has now been put on the (list of) so-called confirmed Guillain-Barrˆm syndrome cases. They are all suspected cases. In fact, as far as the vaccination programme shows, at this moment the only possible complication or side-effect is related to the first patient. All the other subsequent patients have not been put on the list of really confirmed Guillain-Barrˆm syndrome and also particularly not related to the vaccination.
Reporter: Tomorrow will be exactly a month since the vaccination programme started. Considering the low take-up rate, will you consider the vaccination programme as a success?
Secretary for Food and Health: I think the vaccination programme is always considered as an insurance, that is, in case of need, we can provide adequate vaccine for all the at-risk groups. We have done that. Although the uptake rate is not very high at this moment, this may also be related to the fact that the epidemic in Hong Kong has not been very serious so far. In fact, the various surveillance (data) show that the peak is yet to come. So I think we still have time, in case when the peak is approaching, we are able to encourage more people to take up the vaccine. But at this moment, I am not particularly that worried.
Reporter: (about the number of vaccines)
Secretary for Food and Health: We have already bought three million doses and that is it.
Reporter: (about vaccine)
Secretary for Food and Health: We have taken into account that there are two influenza peaks in Hong Kong. One is the winter season peak which usually appears in February and March. And so far we do not see any surge indicating this peak from our surveillance. The second peak will be around July and August. That is also the same time when we had the very prolonged peak in 2009. In other words, the vaccine can protect people from these two peaks in the coming year. And that is why we are not too worried about the utilisation of vaccine at this stage, because if the second peak, that is the winter peak, is not to come, we still need to protect people from the summer peak. That is also another concern we have. We are not going to give up the three million doses to anybody. We are going to keep it as a safeguard for our community. We do not see the need of buying any more at the moment because we can foresee that a number of percentage of our community has already been immunised at this stage. So I think the three million doses will be adequate for the coming year. Regarding the winter peak or winter influenza for 2011, as far as I know, the new vaccine will be incorporated into the seasonal influenza vaccine at the end of this year. We will be purchasing the seasonal influenza vaccine in the same way as in previous years.
Reporter: How soon will we know when the Government is going to expand the vaccination programme to non-target groups?
Secretary for Food and Health: In fact, the private sector has already been vaccinating people not belonging to target groups, but they have to pay for their own vaccine. That has been done. We will allow this to happen because there is difference in opinions, there are still people who like to be vaccinated. I think we have adequate vaccine to allow the private sector to utilise the vaccine that we have.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)
Ends/Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Issued at HKT 15:05
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