Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ16: Preventing the spread of infectious diseases
Following is a question by the Hon Michael Mak and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, in the Legislative Council today (January 14):
Question:
Regarding the prevention of the spreading of infectious diseases, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers of cases of various types of infectious diseases reported over the past three months, and how these figures compare to the relevant figures of the same period in each of the past three years;
(b) whether the Administration has studied why, despite the implementation of measures for preventing the recurrence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and massive outbreaks of other infectious diseases, there are still outbreaks of infectious diseases in the community; if it has, of the results of the study; and
(c) whether the Administration will expedite the establishment of the Centre for Health Protection, enhance its connection with neighbouring areas or nations and those currently affected by an outbreak of infectious disease, and release information to the public on strengthening protection against infectious diseases as soon as there are signs of such an outbreak in Hong Kong?
Reply:
(a) During the period September to November 2003, there were a total of 3,500 cases of statutorily notifiable diseases reported to the Department of Health (DH), affecting 4,108 persons. The number was lower than those of the corresponding period of the previous three years by 17 per cent to 44 per cent. Please refer to the Appendix for details.
(b) Infectious diseases are a continuous treat to the health of people causing significant morbidity, mortality and economic loss to the community. In Hong Kong, mortality and morbidity from infectious diseases have been much reduced with the advances and improvements in medical services, economy, education and environment. However, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases continue to pose threats to public health because of globalisation, global warming, population growth etc. In particular, increased international movement of people and extensive and interrelated food chains have increased the risk of spreading infectious diseases.
During the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic, the Government has considerably enhanced health promotion and education efforts to raise community awareness of personal hygiene and participation in hygienic practices. The DH has issued guidelines to institutions such as elderly homes, child-care centres and schools, alerting them to enhance disease surveillance, to report early suspected infectious diseases outbreak, and to maintain good personal, food and environmental hygiene. DH has also implemented the influenza vaccination programme in residential homes for elderly and disabled persons. However, as some infectious diseases are particularly prone to spread through close contact in institutionalised settings, cases of infectious diseases may still occur in these institutions. DH will continue to work closely with the relevant sectors and operators to strengthen infection control actions in these settings.
(c) We are pressing ahead with the establishment of a Centre for Health Protection (CHP) in Hong Kong. Following research into overseas experience and consultations with an advisory committee comprising local healthcare experts and academics, we have formulated an organisation structure for the CHP featuring six functional branches. Our interim target is for the CHP to come into operation in mid-2004 to take on two core functions, namely, (i) surveillance and epidemiology and (ii) infection control. We expect the new public health agency to be fully established by 2005. We briefed the LegCo Panel on Health Services on the progress of setting up the CHP on January 5, 2004. Meanwhile, DH's work on infectious disease control has been reorganised to enhance the effectiveness of this function.
The Government has been taking a series of measures to prevent the resurgence of SARS and other infectious diseases. As outlined in the "Checklist of Measures to Combat SARS" released in September 2003, the HKSAR Government has put in place a comprehensive strategy to guard against SARS, through preventing a resurgence of the disease and strengthening preparedness; maintaining close and effective surveillance for the disease; and combating it promptly and rigorously, should it re-emerge. The Government has prepared an emergency response plan with a three-level response system. Regular drills have been conducted to test the plan.
We have also enhanced the infectious disease notification mechanism within Hong Kong and with the Guangdong Province and Macau. In addition to exchanging information on the statutory notifiable diseases of the three places on a regular basis, agreement was reached for prompt mutual notification of sudden upsurge of any infectious diseases of unknown nature or of public health significance. We shall continue to maintain close relationship and share information with the World Health Organisation and other overseas health authorities.
We are also committed to providing timely and accurate information on matters related to SARS and other infectious diseases to the local community to keep up a high degree of alertness (e.g. alerts and cases in other places, updated knowledge in SARS and other diseases).
Ends/Wednesday, January 14, 2004
NNNN
| Number of Notifications of Notifiable Infectious Diseases in September, | ||||||||||||
| October and November for 2000-2003 | ||||||||||||
| Disease | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | ||||||||
| Sep | Oct | Nov | Sep | Oct | Nov | Sep | Oct | Nov | Sep | Oct | Nov | |
| Cholera | 1 | 2 | 2 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Plague | ||||||||||||
| Yellow Fever | ||||||||||||
| Acute Poliomyelitis | ||||||||||||
| Amoebic Dysentery | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Bacillary Dysentery | 37 | 21 | 22 | 36 | 56 | 31 | 52 | 25 | 23 | 8 | 8 | 17 |
| Chickenpox | 331 | 537 | 1062 | 666 | 1205 | 2141 | 411 | 848 | 1414 | 242 | 496 | 866 |
| Dengue Fever | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 17 | 12 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 1 | |
| Diphtheria | ||||||||||||
| Food Poisoning - Outbreak | 39 | 78 | 33 | 52 | 41 | 31 | 65 | 50 | 37 | 49 | 42 | 31 |
| (Persons affected) | (162) | (223) | (125) | (227) | (126) | (91) | (300) | (194) | (132) | (430) | (165) | (135) |
| Legionnaires' Disease | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||||||||
| Leprosy | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Malaria | 5 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | |
| Measles | 3 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 4 |
| Meningococcal Infections | 1 | 3 | 2 | |||||||||
| Mumps | 8 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 17 | 17 | 12 | |
| Paratyphoid Fever | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 |
| Rabies(Human) | 1 | |||||||||||
| Relapsing Fever | ||||||||||||
| Rubella | 11 | 6 | 13 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Scarlet Fever | 6 | 3 | 3 | 14 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome † | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | |||
| Tetanus | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Tuberculosis | 628 | 595 | 593 | 587 | 654 | 560 | 552 | 587 | 500 | 462 | 573 | 515 |
| Typhoid Fever | 13 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 5 | 6 | 3 | |
| Typhus Fever | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | ||||
| Viral Hepatitis | 33 | 40 | 33 | 36 | 17 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 19 | 18 | 25 | 22 |
| -A | 17 | 14 | 12 | 19 | 7 | 7 | 14 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 8 |
| -B | 13 | 23 | 18 | 16 | 9 | 11 | 7 | 16 | 12 | 8 | 14 | 4 |
| -C | 1 | |||||||||||
| -E | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||
| -Unclassified | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 9 | ||||
| Whooping Cough | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Total * | 1122 | 1312 | 1777 | 1443 | 2014 | 2821 | 1159 | 1593 | 2041 | 824 | 1191 | 1485 |
| Notes: | ||||||||||||
| (1) * Excluding persons affected in food poisoning cases, i.e. figures in the bracket | ||||||||||||
| (2) † Notifiable since 27 March 2003 | ||||||||||||
| (3) NA - Not applicable | ||||||||||||