Press Releases
SFH on healthcare expenses and human swine influenza
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 radio
programme today (March 1):
Reporter: (budget plan to spend on dental healthcare for the elderly)
Secretary for Food and Health: There are many items in the budget regarding
improvement of primary care. The Government has put aside $600 million for
this particular aspect and that includes the setting up of a centre to
co-ordinate primary care, and also setting up of a pilot community health
centre. We will also be introducing some public and private partnership in
managing chronically ill patients like diabetic and hyper-tension. We have
also put aside $21 million as a pilot for improvement of dental care for the
elderly. The details will be discussed together with the dental association
and also the local dentists. So, the details will not be revealed until
later on.
Reporter: (on human swine flu)
Secretary for Food and Health: According to the World Health Organisation,
the world is going through the so-called post-peak period and so it does not
mean that the pandemic is over yet. But I think the peak in general in the
Northern Hemisphere has come down. We are seeing increasing cases only in
the Middle-East, North Africa and South Asia. For Hong Kong, we are not
seeing any sign of winter peak so far and the number of H1N1 has not
increased. We saw some of the increases in Influenza B cases in the last two
weeks. So we do not know whether that is the sign of our winter peak being
dominated by Influenza B or not. According to the expert analysis, because
of the long summer peak we had in 2009 lasted for four and a half months, it
may be the reason why we do not have a big winter peak as predicted for
previous year. As far as the vaccine goes, we are still keeping the vaccine
because we do not know whether we will need it in the coming months. We will
be purchasing the seasonal flu vaccine for the coming winter at the end of
2010. By the time that the new vaccine comes in October or November, of
course we do not require the current vaccine to protect us then.
(Please also refer to the
Chinese portion of the transcript)
Ends/Monday, March 1, 2010
Issued at HKT 15:30
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