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The following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, after attending the Topping Out Ceremony for Tseung Kwan O Hospital Ambulatory Block today (June 8):
Reporter: (about contaminated antibiotics in Taiwan)
Secretary for Food and Health: According to the information given to the Department of Health, the testing in Taiwan has not yet been validated that the antibiotic actually contains the plasticiser. The Augmentin that is supplied to Hong Kong comes from France and also the UK. So we have to go back to the suppliers to see whether they have any evidence that these drugs are contaminated. At the same time, we will test our drugs too. I believe that the test results should come out very soon, either today or tomorrow.
Reporter: (about E. coli-O104 infection)
Secretary for Food and Health: When there is a serious infection, with a very high percentage of mortality and morbidity, I am sure the medical profession will try every means to save their patients. It is not surprising that some doctors would try to deviate from the advice of the World Health Organisation to find a suitable way of treating their patients. This is actually a new infection and a new way of testing different types of treatments. So we should have an open mind for what type of treatment should be given. But we should be able to get as much information as possible about the 2,000 infection cases from Germany to see what the appropriate treatment is so far. I am sure that the treatment regime will be evolved with time and better investigation and more thorough information from the various researches. What I am concerned about is this is a new infection; it is also an infection for which so far the German authorities are still unable to find the exact source of the E. coli. I think they should look at sources other than what they suspected earlier on. They first suspected vegetables like cucumbers, sprouts, tomatoes and so on, but I think we should also look at other food sources and drink sources. I am not surprised that there might be some other sources that have been contaminated being overlooked.
Reporter: (about prevention measures for E. coli-O104 infection in Hong Kong)
Secretary for Food and Health: Hong Kong would prepare for the first case to arrive, if unfortunately we have to face one. We are considering whether we will put this infection as a notifiable disease as well. But first of all, we need to develop the diagnostic test. Hopefully we can diagnose the case as early as possible. With the genetic make-up that is now ascertained, it is not too difficult for us to develop a PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction), a sort of fast test, to make that diagnosis within perhaps a day or a few hours. I think this is something that we are proceeding with. Secondly, as I said earlier on, we will get information from various institutes regarding the treatment of this disease. If we are going to face a case like that, we will be able to give appropriate treatment and use the case as the first source of tracing of the infection. To know the exposure of the case to various food items is very important in an investigation of infection like this.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Issued at HKT 16:57
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