Press Releases
Holistic approach to tuberculosis control (with photo)
The Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, said today (March
24) that the Government has all along been taking a holistic approach
to prevent the spread of tuberculosis (TB), which remains one of the
most prevalent infectious diseases worldwide, despite a significant
improvement in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
Speaking at a ceremony to mark 2013 World TB Day, Dr Ko said, "To
fight against TB, we need a series of comprehensive measures which are
both acceptable to and supported by the community."
Dr Ko said that to achieve this, the chest clinics under the
Department of Health (DH)'s Centre for Health Protection (CHP) provide
members of the public with TB examination and full-term outpatient
treatment free of charge. The CHP's TB Laboratory was designated as
the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Supranational TB Reference
Laboratory, providing quality support for testing of the TB bacteria.
The Hospital Authority (HA) provides inpatient services to TB patients
to ensure timely and effective management of the disease. In order to
enhance control measures for infectious diseases including TB, the
Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance (Cap. 599) was commenced
in July 2008.
Addressing the ceremony, the Controller of the CHP, Dr Leung
Ting-hung, said that the emergence of drug-resistant TB in recent
years had aroused much concern in the healthcare sector.
Drug-resistant TB was related to the inappropriate use of drugs. To
effectively control TB, the Hong Kong Government has adopted the
Directly Observed Treatment (DOT) method strongly recommended by the
WHO since the 1970s, with remarkable results.
Under the DOT, patients take medication regularly and complete the
course of drug therapy under the direct observation and support of
healthcare staff in order to minimise the possibility of drug
resistance.
Dr Leung said, "Currently, the proportion of drug-resistant TB (which
mainly includes multidrug-resistant TB and extensively drug-resistant
TB) is not high in Hong Kong. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and
extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) accounted respectively for
about 1 per cent and 0.1 per cent of the overall bacteriologically
positive cases, but we will not treat the problem lightly. We will
continue our endeavours in TB prevention, treatment and surveillance,
with emphasis on stressing the importance of the proper use of drugs.
"The DH will continue to strengthen the existing TB surveillance and
control strategy and mechanism, and maintain close co-operation and
exchange with the WHO and other international and local TB prevention
organisations with a view to further reducing the TB incidence rate
and curbing the number of drug-resistant TB cases in Hong Kong with
all-out efforts," he added.
According to the WHO, 8.7 million and 1.4 million people fell ill with
and died from TB respectively in 2011 globally.
In Hong Kong, there were around 5,000 notified cases in 2012 at a rate
of 70 cases per 100,000 members of the population, near the historical
low for Hong Kong.
The theme of the 2013 World TB Day campaign is "Join Hands to fight
against TB in every possible way". Today's ceremony was jointly
organised by the Hong Kong Tuberculosis, Chest and Heart Diseases
Association, the DH and the HA. A two-day exhibition and educational
activities are being held to disseminate the anti-TB message.
The Chairman of the Hong Kong Tuberculosis, Chest and Heart Diseases
Association, Mr Steve Lan, and the Chairman of the Hospital Authority,
Mr Anthony Wu, were among the officiating guests.
The public can call the DH's TB hotline at 2572 6024 for more
TB-related information, or visit the website jointly developed by the
DH and the HA (www.info.gov.hk/tb_chest)
or the WHO website (www.who.int/gtb).
Ends/Sunday, March 24, 2013
Issued at HKT 15:46
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Photo