Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ6: Medical services for AIDS patients and HIV infected individuals
Following is a question by the Dr Hon Yeung Sum and a written reply by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today
(April 16):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the medical services currently provided by the authorities to Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) patients and Human Immunodeficiency Virus
(HIV) infected individuals; and
(b) as I have learnt that the medication and therapies currently used by the
authorities in treating AIDS are more effective than those used in the past in
terms of delaying HIV infected individuals' progress to AIDS and lengthening the
survival time of AIDS patients, whether it has assessed if the existing services
are adequate to meet the demand at present and in the next few years; if the
assessment result indicates that they are inadequate, whether it has any plan to
allocate more resources to ensure that the service quality can be maintained?
Reply:
Madam President:
Both the Department of Health (DH) and Hospital Authority (HA) are providing
medical services to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) patients and
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infected individuals. Services span from
treatment and prevention of incidental infection, antiviral therapy, regular
blood testing to monitoring the treatment progress and psychological support
provided by a multi-specialist support team.
The application of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) or "cocktail
therapy" was introduced to Hong Kong in 1997, and has proven to be successful in
achieving clinical benefits and good public health outcomes. Studies indicated
that the accessibility and effectiveness of medical services for AIDs patients
and HIV infected individuals in Hong Kong are comparable to the best standards
in developed western countries. The medical services as described are accessible
to all local patients, and there has been a 80-90% reduction in AIDS mortality
and morbidity rate since HAART was introduced.
With the accumulation of patients from improved survival and the rising HIV
epidemic among men who have sex with men, an increasing number of HIV and AIDS
patients are under the care of the above services. Such patients increased by
about 15 to 20% every year from 2005 to 2007. The annual drug cost for treating
each patient was approximately HK$100,000. To meet the increase in demand, the
Government has allocated an extra HK$30 million and HK$12 million to DH and HA
respectively in 2008/09 for the additional drugs, manpower and laboratory tests
required.
The Government will continue to monitor the situation closely and ensure that
sufficient resources are made available to provide medical services for HIV
infected people and AIDS patients.
Ends/Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Issued at HKT 12:19
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