Press Releases
HK co-hosts international SARS clinical management workshop
A two-day workshop co-organised by the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau of Hong Kong Government and the World Health Organisation (WHO) will bring together a group of international experts to share the best evidence in the clinical management of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and nosocomial infection.
Tagged as the first of its kind, the SARS Clinical Management Workshop will be opened tomorrow morning (June 13) by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, and Dr Mark Salter and Dr Mike Ryan from WHO's Office of Communicable Disease Surveillance at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Over 120 clinicians and medical experts from USA, United Kingdom, Canada, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, France, Beijing, Guangdong and Hong Kong will take part in the workshop. WHO's representatives from the Head Office, Western Pacific Regional Office and China Office will also take part.
During the workshop, the overseas delegates will share their experience with local delegates in three main areas: clinical presentation and progress of disease, treatment modalities and nosocomial infection and infection control.
Through the workshop, a consensus document will be developed on the clinical management of SARS for presentation to the WHO Global Conference on SARS to be held in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia on June 17 and 18.
The two-day workshop will be followed by a visit of WHO's Executive Director of Communicable Diseases, Dr David Heymann to Hong Kong on June 15 and 16.
Dr Heymann will share his experience with local dignitaries in a presentation on the SARS global outbreak at a welcome reception to be hosted in his honour on June 15 (Sunday).
Some 150 guests including legislators, consul generals, chambers of commerce and representatives from the health care sector will attend the reception.
On the next day (June 16), Dr Heymann will see for himself anti-SARS measures being implemented in Hong Kong, including an introduction on the enhanced computer surveillance system specially developed to enable swift contact tracing of confirmed and suspected SARS patients.
Dr Heymann will depart Hong Kong on June 16 for WHO's Global Conference on SARS in Malaysia.
Dr Yeoh will also be joining the same conference to review the impact of SARS and share with other participating countries the lessons learnt.
The Director-General of WHO, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, will pay a one-day visit to Hong Kong on June 19 following the WHO Global Conference.
"This series of conferences and visits is part of the exercise to get lessons to be learnt from the handling of SARS both locally and overseas," Dr Yeoh said.
"The knowledge obtained will help us improve our systems to tackle infectious diseases, provide speedy and appropriate care for patients and protect public health," he said.
(Media arrangements for the SARS Clinical Management Workshop and Dr Heymann's and Dr Brundtland's visits to Hong Kong will be issued separately)
End/Thursday, June 12, 2003
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