Press Releases
SFH on melamine incidents and organ donation
Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and
Health, Dr York Chow, at a stand-up media session in the Legislative Council
Building today (November 10):
Reporter: There are shortages of eggs in Hong Kong. What was happening?
Secretary for Food and Health: As I explained on Saturday, the central authority
has actually indicated that they would like to ensure the food supply in Hong
Kong is safe, particularly for egg supply that is melamine free. So the
suppliers are very careful to screen the source of eggs before they are imported
to Hong Kong. This would be a temporary arrangement and certainly it will result
in a temporary shortage as well.
Reporter: How long will be the temporary shortage?
Secretary for Food and Health: It is difficult to say because our eggs come from
different provinces and areas of the Mainland, so it will take some time.
Reporter: I foresee that the Government has an uphill battle in organ donation
because of superstition.
Secretary for Food and Health: I think that superstition has slowly being
overcome by more open attitude from our citizens, particularly the younger ones.
As I see, the most difficult part in the past is we don't know what is the wish
of the potential donors. Because sometimes they have pledged but they are not
carrying their donation card. Secondly, there are only 40,000 people registered
with the Hong Kong Medical Association's registry, the number is still quite
small. What we have done now is to enlarge this register so that we can fill as
many potential donors as possible. At the same time, this information will be
accessible to the transplant co-ordinators and the Hospital Authority so that
the family members can quickly grasp what the wish of the potential donor would
be.
Reporter: (medical staff not keen to save life in order to secure donors'
organs)
Secretary for Food and Health: I don't think that would be possible. The
priority of our medical staff to anybody who got sickness or injury is to save
the life of that particular person. It is only when we find that there is a sign
of brain death and actually irreversible death, then we will discuss with the
family members organ donation.
Reporter: Are you an organ donor yourself?
Secretary for Food and Health: I signed the organ donation card many years back.
This time, with the new system, I have also signed the new card and I have also
told my family members.
Reporter: Would you ask all your staff to be organ donors?
Secretary for Food and Health: In fact, I like to appeal to everybody in Hong
Kong to be an organ donor, including all the reporters.
(Please also refer to the
Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Monday, November 10, 2008
Issued at HKT 12:21
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