Press Releases
SHWF meets with health officials from Australia and Thailand
A regional-wide preparedness plan will minimise the chances of an avian
influenza outbreak in the region, said the Secretary for Health, Welfare and
Food, Dr York Chow, at a bilateral meeting with the Thailand Minister of Public
Health today (May 17).
Dr Chow was in Geneva attending the 58th World Health Assembly. Seizing on the
opportunity of the gathering there, he met with his Australian and Thai
counterparts, respectively, to exchange views on health issues of mutual
concern.
Dr Chow shared the view that it would benefit the entire region if there was to
be closer cooperation between countries in the region, in particular, in dealing
with the threat of a possible outbreak of the avian influenza.
Both the Secretary of the Australian Department of Health and Aging, Ms Jane
Halton, and the Thai Minister of Public Health, Mr Suchai Charoenratanakul,
agreed that there should be more professional exchange of medical personnel with
Hong Kong.
Dr Chow also took the opportunity to visit the World Health Organisation's (WHO)
Strategic Health Information Centre, where he was briefed by officials at the
centre on the WHO's information sharing and alert system on infectious disease.
Ends/Tuesday, May 17, 2005
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