Press Releases
Government continues to refine strategy against human swine flu
The Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, said today (May 19) that
the Government would continue to review and refine the strategy to fight
against human swine flu taking into account local experience and global
developments.
Dr Chow, who attended the World Health Organisation's annual assembly and a
roundtable meeting on the pandemic in Geneva yesterday, said the views
shared by various countries at the meetings gave a better understanding of
the new disease and the global situation.
"Based on my communication with various delegates at the World Health
Assembly, I am confident that our current objective of containment to delay
community transmission for as long as it takes is the right course to take.
"But we must continue to refine our strategy and measures to make it
sustainable, focusing on close contacts and their early tracing and
identification, and adjusting our measures to ensure that they are effective
and proportionate in achieving our containment objective, especially whether
close medical surveillance with chemoprophylaxis can also achieve
effectively the containment objective vis-a-vis quarantine, before the first
confirmed local transmission case emerges in Hong Kong," Dr Chow said.
Enhanced measures include:
* To call upon all concerned to strengthen pre-flight health education,
appeals and warnings to passengers coming from affected countries including
North America and Japan;
* To prepare for closure of schools for young children and opening of
designated clinics of the Hospital Authority in anticipation of community
transmission;
* To further step up cleaning and environmental hygiene measures, and engage
different sectors and stakeholders in the community to prepare for the
mitigation phase.
Dr Chow said that in view of the recent development of the disease around
the world, the transition from the containment to mitigation phase looked
imminent in Hong Kong.
"We have therefore reviewed together with local experts in Hong Kong the
strategy and measures for control and management of human swine flu and
fine-tuned our strategy against pandemic.
"We have taken into account the latest global trend, the latest information
about the disease from the World Health Assembly, and local experience with
the effectiveness of chemoprophylaxis," he said.
At the roundtable meeting on the pandemic, various countries had shared
their experience in the fight against the disease. It was noted that:
* Almost all countries, except Mexico, still see an upsurge in cases;
* All cases outside Mexico are clinically mild, with a low hospitalisation
rate (usually related to severe respiratory symptoms), affecting the younger
age group (20-50), and all deaths (including those of Mexico) are related to
co-morbidity of chronic diseases;
* The critical success factor for most countries is still early diagnosis
with treatment and isolation, and early tracing of close contacts to be put
under medical surveillance or some sort of supervision, ideally with
prophylaxis with oseltamivir.
The meeting also identified areas which required more research and
deliberation, including the virulence of the virus, the possibility of its
mutation, the ability to develop a vaccine before this winter and the need
to revise the WHO's current pandemic alert system to also reflect the
severity of the virus.
Ends/Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Issued at HKT 14:57
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