Press Releases

Transcript of Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food on avian influenza

Following is a transcript of the remarks made by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, at a media session after officiating at the opening ceremony of Hong Kong International Conference on Infectious Diseases today (January 31):

Reporter: (health checks at border?)

Dr Yeoh: We have already stepped up (the health checks) after the possibility of avian flu in the region. We have stepped up (the health checks at) our border control points to pick up any individuals who have travelled to the affected region that may come back with bird flu and the Director of Health has already stepped up these measures. So at border points if people are feeling unwell, particularly if they come back from places or countries where there is avian flu, the staff at border control points are alert to pick up these individuals because most of the symptoms are very similar to SARS - fever, cough and if there is a history of travel and unwell, then they will be asked for further interviews, and to send them to hospitals for investigation and treatment if necessary. As you know, we have already made H5 influenza a notifiable disease, so we have powers to isolate individuals, we have powers to do quite a few things, and doctors will be required to notify. So these things are already in place. So the powers to control any possible human infections are really with us. And both the Hospital Authority and the Department of Health have already their own contingency plans in case if there are human cases.

Reporter: (imports?)

Dr Yeoh: The two things happened yesterday morning when there were no suspected cases in Guangdong Province. It was because of the overcrowded situations in the markets that we asked the trade and we had a temporary suspension which was really to make sure the demand and supply situation was dealt with effectively. Last night after the suspected cases were notified to us by the authorities in the Mainland, we would not process any more requests for importation for chickens and poultry meat to Hong Kong. So we have done that. Because of the extent of the problem in the region, we are very concerned and on the alert. We've stepped up our surveillance systems of our own local farms. The Food and Environmental Hygiene colleagues have been to the markets to make sure that we do not have any unusual deaths in chickens there. Both last night and this morning they have been patrolling in markets and the Director (of Food and Environmental Hygiene) has just reported to me that there was no unusual deaths in the markets. As you know that the chickens that are coming from China have all been coming from designated farms which have been certified by the Ministry and the meat buyers. We have programmes of inspections of farms and we also have required the standards of these farms be met. We also require that the chickens that come to us are free from avian flu. We also require the birds that used to come to us were vaccinated against avian flu, meeting the protocols set up by us and demand all these requirements be met. Of course, we also have an additional level of safety is that we test the birds that come to Hong Kong to make sure that they have the antibodies against the bird flu. We also test the birds whether they are carrying the virus. So all these things have been in place. Obviously I think we don't have too many chickens in the farms or in the markets but we will do everything possible to ensure they continue not to be infected.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion)

Ends/Saturday, January 31, 2004
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