Press Releases

SFH on swine flu

Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, and the Controller of the Centre for Health Protection, Dr Thomas Tsang, at a stand-up media session at the Centre for Health Protection today (April 28):

Reporter: (ask the public to wear masks)

Secretary for Food and Health: I am sure now with the widespread of the possible suspected cases, there will be more reported cases in different countries and not just the countries that you have just mentioned. So, we are monitoring very closely the situation being developing in other places if there are outbreaks of significant kind in certain countries, in certain cities, then of course, we will impose other travel advice regarding those places. Regarding the protection for our staff, particularly in the Hospital Authority and various departments, in the meeting this morning, we have actually checked that we have sufficient protective gears in Hong Kong including masks for our departments and working staff. So, we are not worried about the supply of those articles at the moment. It is important that we are monitoring the utilisation of them and replenishing them if necessary.

Reporter: Australia's inbound flight procedure to ask airlines to check the health status of their passengers before landing, will Hong Kong adopt such procedure?

Secretary for Food and Health: Absolutely not. I think, of course, we always gain and learn from experiences. The important part of our measures is, even during previous times we already have a very vigilant way of testing patients, and actually passengers who have fever. As thermal screening is concerned, Hong Kong is very experienced with it. We have already asked all airlines to announce the public health messages to all the flights. So when they come to Hong Kong, they actually know what they are expecting. They are also advised to inform us if they are sick. And on top of that as I've said earlier on, within this week we will impose, say, health declaration requirement for all the passengers, so with that we will be able to trace any possible passengers who are sick and their accompanying passengers on the same flight as soon as possible. To all these measures, it is aimed to identify the first case and also the contacts related to the first case.

Reporter: (inaudible)

Secretary for Food and Health: I would ask Professor Yuen to answer this question regarding the nature of this new virus. But we are also testing for existing viruses existing in our local pigs in our farms as well as those we slaughter everyday in our abattoir coming from China. So, we are screening for any H1 virus in those pigs as well. So far we have not found any. Regarding the specific situation of the virus, perhaps I would ask Professor Yuen to answer.

Prof Yuen Kwok-yung: At this stage in time, the information is available in the gene bank. So we have downloaded the gene sequences of this swine-like virus H1N1 from the gene bank and do some analyses. It is quite clear that it is not really a swine virus. It has already been assorted and adapted to human. People still have some degree of argument on whether it is a swine virus or a swine-like virus that infected human. Although we have said it is swine flu, it is because there are a lot of genes, especially the surface genes, which are basically swine genes. There are internal genes which are human and also there are some poultry-like. In a way, they are using the word swine virus, maybe there are points for arguments. Although the surface gene is swine and that is why everybody says it is swine flu virus. As for the safety of the pigs in terms of consumption, in the past three days we have fished out all the surveillance specimens in 2007 and 2008 pig specimens which are from Hong Kong going to the abattoir before they are slaughtered, nasal smear swabs were taken from these pigs and we had done PCR on them. We did not find any inference of virus in these pigs. I think, with regards to inference of virus, the pigs in Hong Kong are very safe. So, don't worry, the chance of you dying from streptococcus suis is much, much, much higher than dying from swine-like virus. Okay, swine-like flu virus.

Reporter: What happens to the 27-year-old woman?

Controller of the Centre for Health Protection: We have started testing and surveillance of patients who came back from these affected areas and developing respiratory symptoms and fever. We have that system in place. Since it has started, we have a total of seven patients undergoing testing in hospital. Three of which I announced yesterday are negative for swine flu. One patient had ordinary human influenza. On top of those three I mentioned, today we have four other patients who fulfilled the criteria I have just mentioned. They are being tested in hospital. Hopefully we can rule out their illness being swine flu in the next 24 to 48 hours. So, these are patients that have fulfilled the reporting criteria, meaning that they have developed fever and respiratory symptoms after travelling to affected places.

Reporters: (Public have difficulties to obtain masks)

Secretary for Food and Health: I think people should not panic about not able to get masks because we are not at the pandemic phase yet. We are only doing preparation. I know a lot of people having stocked up masks at home. I think it is important at this point in time that if needed, they need to share with their family members and friends. The Government has sufficient supply; in case of need, we can always mobilise supply in the areas where we need to provide such protective gears. We should not panic about this. We are making all sorts of comprehensive preparation for the pandemic but it is important for the public that they need to be rational, they need to be calm, and they need to keep track of the information that the Government is going to give them.

Reporter: (keep track of people)

Secretary for Food and Health: No, we could not keep track of people who have no symptoms. We only ask people to make health declaration so that we have their forms. We have also given out appeal and health advice to all people when they develop symptoms they should report to their doctors as soon as possible or come to our clinics or hospitals so that we can pick them up, investigate and also isolate them and treat them right away. So, this is the objective of our policy right now.

(Please also refer to the Chinese session of the transcript)


Ends/Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Issued at HKT 22:51

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