Press Releases

WHO offers praise and encouragement for "heroic" HK action on SARS

Hong Kong has undertaken "heroic" containment measures in its battle against atypical pneumonia, according to the World Health Organisation's Executive Director of Communicable Diseases, Dr David Heymann.

During a videoconference between Geneva and Hong Kong today (May 6), Dr Heymann thanked the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, on behalf of the world health body for Hong Kong's efforts and said it appreciated the work that was going into containing the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

He also offered Hong Kong the WHO's sincere thanks for allowing a Malaysian ship to enter the port at the weekend with suspected SARS cases on board, adding: "You certainly did this in the right way."

The videoconference was organised so Dr Yeoh could present a WHO panel with the latest update on SARS in Hong Kong.

At the end, Dr Heymann invited the Health Secretary to address the World Health Assembly in Geneva on May 20 and present Hong Kong's experience in the SARS epidemic.

Dr Yeoh later told a press conference that the WHO's review panel had outlined three general criteria that would be applied before it could lift the travel advisory warning against making unnecessary trips to SARS affected areas. They were:

* The number of new cases had to fall below five per day and the overall active case number to 60.

* There should be no "exports" of cases to other countries from Hong Kong.

* The mode of transmission should be understood in each case. That meant that there should be no "surprise" cases beyond the group of people who were already traced as contacts of existing patients and their families.

The Director of Health, Dr Margaret Chan, and the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau's Head of Research, Dr Lo Su Vui, joined Dr Yeoh in the videoconference.

Dr Yeoh and Dr Chan discussed the application of the three criteria to Hong Kong at length with the WHO panel. In particular, Dr Yeoh pointed out that in Hong Kong we kept patients in hospitals for a week after they had responded to treatment and asked about the basis for the 60 cases.

The WHO group agreed that there might be some flexibility allowed on the other two criteria so long as the general trend was downwards - as it was in Hong Kong - and the average of new cases was fewer than five in the previous three-day period.

The group also agreed that Hong Kong was already cleared of "exporting" cases. Dr Yeoh said the eSARS computer tracing system was proving extremely useful to identify possible cases. He outlined measures announced yesterday under which Hong Kong will spend $1 billion on facilities to fight SARS and research other diseases.

The participants agreed to discuss the issues again at another videoconference next week.

End/Tuesday, May 6, 2003
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