Press Releases

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

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 attending the opening ceremony of Yan Chai Chinese Medicine Clinic cum Research Centre today (February 9):

Dr Yeoh: Fortunately, we have been spared having an outbreak of avian flu in Hong Kong. Obviously, the Government is taking all the measures to make sure that we minimise any risk of an outbreak of avian flu in Hong Kong. Fortunately up to this date, we have not had any case of avian flu either in animals or in man. But I just want to assure the public that not only have we stepped up our surveillance, we have also worked out contingency plans. One set of contingency plans relates to when there is an outbreak of avian flu in the bird population, what would be the measures that would be taken by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department. The other set of measures will be the contingency plans in the unfortunate event that we have a case of avian influenza in humans either imported or in the Hong Kong context. We have another set of scenarios we have been working on in terms of contingency plans that if unfortunately there is a more efficient human to human spread. And the third set will be when there is a large outbreak in Hong Kong, what would be the measures and the command structure that would be in place. So, all these are being worked out.

Another set of things that we are dealing with is that we expect this outbreak of avian flu in the region to continue for some time because we do not expect that this will be controlled in a very short time. As you know, there are also postulates that in spring and summer, when the migratory birds go back to the north, they may bring about another wave of avian flu. But we do see that the present avian flu is going to be with us for some time. So, we are working out the different scenarios for public consultation to see when and if we should bring in back the live birds in Hong Kong? What should we do with our local poultry farms and population because the present stock of birds in our local farms will only last about two to three months? Of course, you should know the hatch eggs currently come from the Mainland and if we don't bring in any live birds in Hong Kong, the local stock will dry up in a very short period. So, these are all scenarios that we are working out and we hope to be able to bring up some of these questions for discussion in the public arena in several weeks' time.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion)

Ends/Monday, February 9, 2004
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