Press Releases
SFH on class suspension in primary schools and kindergarten due to flu
Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and
Health, Dr York Chow, at a stand-up media session at Murray Building, Central
last night (March 12):
Reporter: Dr Chow, is there any real pressing medical reason to implement the
closure of schools and is there any indication other than a normal influenza?
Secretary for Food and Health: At present, there is no indication showing there
is any significant change of the virus that makes it exceptionally more virulent
than the usual flu virus. But of course we cannot rule out anything yet. So, our
scientists will continue to investigate, particularly the causes of death of the
children concerned. We will also monitor the virus in the community. We will
also do isolates from various reports, from both the sentinel surveillance as
well as our clinics and hospitals. We have asked all the schools to inform us if
they have any significant increase in sick leave, particularly if any of their
students needed to be hospitalised. The hospitals will inform the Centre for
Health Protection if there is any serious cases of influenza that were admitted
with complications. If this multiple monitoring were able to ensure that all the
important information gathered, it would be able to allow us to assess the
situation on a day-to-day basis.
Reporter: Is public fear the primary reason?
Secretary for Food and Health: This is one of the reasons, of course. We feel
that in the last few days there has been increasing concern of some parents and
also some schools, particularly in some areas. We look at the reports from
different schools, there is more reports of outbreak usually from primary
schools rather than high schools. So, in this case, we feel that high schools
need not be suspended for the time being.
Reporter: There would be coroner's cases...Would you make a decision to extend
the school closure before...
Secretary for Food and Health: We shall monitor the situation both from the
public health angle regarding the number of virus isolates on a day-to-day basis
to see what is the trend; secondly, I hope the special experts committee would
be able to give us some indications particularly regarding the virus or some of
the additional factors that caused the severity in the few cases that (the
patients) unfortunately died. If that would actually help us make a better
decision, of course we would announce as soon as possible.
(Please also refer to the
Chinese session of the transcript)
Ends/Thursday, March 13, 2008
Issued at HKT 01:08
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