Press Releases
SFH on human swine flu
Following is a transcript of the remarks by the Secretary for Food and
Health, Dr York Chow, at a stand-up media session after a public function
today (December 11):
Reporter: (on the discovery of human swine flu in a local pig farm)
Secretary for Food and Health: We discovered this virus in the pigs of a
local pig farm through our regular surveillance. The pigs are asymptomatic.
They do not have any symptoms of flu at all. The workers in the pig farm
also do not have any symptoms. It is very difficult to predict whether it
was a human to pig transmission or a pig to pig transmission. Nevertheless,
it is important to know that this regular surveillance is important. We have
also advised that the pigs from this farm will not be sent to abattoir until
we have cleared up the test to make sure that it is all negative before we
can release those pigs for slaughtering. The other important message is to
ensure the pig farmers to have access to the new vaccine. We encourage them
to be vaccinated once we start the programme on December 21.
Reporter: Do you have any idea how the pig got infected?
Secretary for Food and Health: It is a local farm. This is definitely either
through the workers who carried the virus into the farm or some imported
pigs, usually the breeding pigs, from the Mainland which might also carry
the virus. Since the discovery of the virus in pigs is quite well known now
and it is reported in many countries, so this is not something that is
unpredictable. But for us, whenever we find a virus in a new species or in a
new environment, we should always be more cautious.
Reporter: Should the public be concerned?
Secretary for Food and Health: The public should not be unduly concerned
because this virus is already in our society. It is in our community. The
only thing is if it is happening in the farms, we want to make sure that it
is detected early so that we can do something to control any outbreak early.
With outbreak in the pigs and also perhaps the outbreak in humans, the
chance of reassortment and new virus formation through mutation will be
higher.
Reporter: (about the signing of consent form for human swine flu
vaccination)
Secretary for Food and Health: If you look at the consent form carefully, it
is definitely a so-called informed consent form, that is to make sure the
person who receives the vaccination knows the effect as well as the side
effect that have been explained to him through the healthcare worker. This
is actually something quite routine for a lot of new medicine application
and some procedures as well. It is important for us to let the public know
what we are advising and what are the risks they are facing. As far as the
vaccine is concerned, so far through the various vaccination programmes in
many countries which have flu seasons earlier than us, there should be at
least about 50 million people already receiving those vaccines. The side
effects shown are relatively mild. The incidence of serious side effect is
also quite low as comparable with seasonal flu vaccine.
Reporter: (about eating pork)
Secretary for Food and Health: I need to stress again that eating pork is
completely safe. This is the same conclusion drawn by all the scientists and
institutions like the World Health Organisation and the World Organisation
for Animal Health. It is important that the public should not have a
misconception that pork can transmit the virus.
(Please also refer to the
Chinese portion of the transcript)
Ends/Friday, December 11, 2009
Issued at HKT 15:19
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