Press Releases
SFH on human swine flu
Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and
Health, Dr York Chow, at a media stand-up session after attending a public
function today (July 21):
Reporter: (about the guidelines for school closure)
Secretary for Food and Health: As the Controller of the Centre for Health
Protection has stated, the criteria of 10% is a guideline. It is a soft
guideline. We will have to apply it to individual cases, whether the 10%
occurred in one day or progressively within two or three weeks has a very
big difference. And also in a big school with over a thousand students, the
10% is actually over a hundred people. For a small school or kindergarten,
they perhaps only have less than a hundred students, so 10% is just a few
children. This is a very different comparison. So what we intend is that it
is just a guideline. We will look at individual cases to decide on whether
individual institutions need to be closed. As far as the management of the
schools or kindergartens is concerned, I would urge that they should discuss
with the Centre for Health Protection before they make any decision on
closing the school.
Reporter: (about publicising human swine flu figures)
Secretary for Food and Health: The main reason is we still want to monitor
the progress of this epidemic in Hong Kong. The WHO has decided not to
publish those figures because many countries are unable to produce the
figures on a regular basis, particularly on a daily basis. If you look at
the figures from WHO, very few places like Hong Kong can actually give daily
statistics to WHO. But as far as Hong Kong is concerned, we feel this is
important that we monitor the system. But we have also decided that in due
course when we are more concerned about the number of serious cases, the
cases that are hospitalised and cases of fatality. The time will come that
we will switch over to this, but at the moment, we feel that since the peak
of the epidemic is still going on, it is important for us to have a daily
figure.
Reporter: (about time spent on dealing with human swine flu and mental
health services)
Secretary for Food and Health: Not really. We have a very balanced strategy
regarding various health issues in Hong Kong. Of course, we need to address
the crisis of human swine flu because it is a pandemic and it is also
something that will affect all societies. As I have mentioned earlier, it
has already affected 135 countries. And in some European countries, they are
still feeling the impact right now. The United Kingdom has also emphasised
that they expect this will last for much longer than they first expected. So
these are things that we need to be concerned. As far as mental health is
concerned, it is always a continuous issue that will affect our health
services. We understand that there is an increasing demand for services. We
have already used the resources in this aspect every year. Of course, we
would like to focus on some of the areas that we feel that can be improved
further in the coming year.
Reporter: (about when the pandemic will be over)
Secretary for Food and Health: This is a very difficult question. First of
all, nobody knows when this pandemic will end. Most of the pandemic would
slowly dwindle away, with the increase of the herd immunity of the whole
community. For human swine flu, I think it will take really a long time.
That is why we think it is important for us to look at various protective
mechanisms that we can introduce to our community. Getting appropriate
vaccine is one of them. To ensure that we adopt a very high vigilance
against infectious disease is another. We also make sure that we have the
treatment required for this virus at the moment. With the stockpiling of
Tamiflu and Relenza, I think we are well equipped for that purpose. But for
the prediction of this pandemic, I think we have to rely on the experts'
opinions from various sources. So far, nobody can predict exactly when it
will end.
Reporter: (about human swine flu vaccine)
Secretary for Food and Health: I think since we have made a lot of
preparation, I am quite confident that we may be able to get vaccine. But it
is important to note that it is not just a vaccine, we have to make sure
that the vaccine is qualified for all the safety and quality standards that
we have imposed. If most of the vaccine companies can produce vaccines that
are of such high quality and safety, then I am sure that we will be able to
get some.
(Please also refer to the
Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Issued at HKT 16:07
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