Press Releases

SFH on human swine flu

Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, at a media stand-up session after attending a public function today (December 10):

Reporter: (on human swine flu)

Secretary for Food and Health: I think there is a difference between the statistics of Hong Kong and the Mainland regarding the severity and particularly the mortality of pregnant women. We do not know exactly whether there are any additional factors that cause the high incidence of mortality, although we know that pregnant women definitely carry higher risk. I don't know the exact treatment plan for those patients because in Hong Kong, we are fortunate that we have a very comprehensive testing kit that we can diagnose early. We can also have sufficient stock of anti-virals like Tamiflu and Relenza that we can apply early in the treatment of the disease. Although there are some doubts on whether Tamiflu is as effective as it claims, in the experience we have, particularly with the analysis of our laboratory as well as the laboratory of the Hong Kong University, it had shown that the viral load of patients that had received Tamiflu is much lower than those who had not received. In other words, it will definitely control the severity and the mortality of patients.

Reporter: Are there any plans for you to take human swine flu vaccination?

Secretary for Food and Health: Yes, we did. We will tell you later. I definitely will be receiving the vaccination as one of the first individuals.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)






Ends/Thursday, December 10, 2009
Issued at HKT 12:21

NNNN