Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ17: Pneumococcal vaccination for elderly persons
Following is a question by the Dr Hon Kwok Ka-ki and a written reply by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today
(November 18):
Question:
According to the information from the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) under
the Department of Health, between January and August this year, the patients of
more than half of the reported cases of invasive pneumococcal disease were
elderly persons (i.e. persons aged 65 or above). Besides, the number of deaths
from pneumonia increased from 3 026 in 2001 to 7 502 in 2014 and among those who
died from such disease in 2014, 7 072 were elderly persons. On the other hand,
elderly persons may receive pneumococcal vaccination under the Government
Vaccination Programme or the Elderly Vaccination Subsidy Scheme (collectively
referred to as subsidy schemes) at present. Also, CHP announced in February this
year that, as a one-off measure, with effect from March 2 this year, doctors who
participated in the related subsidy scheme under the Childhood 13-valent
Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV13) Booster Vaccination Programme, if they
had remaining doses of government-supplied PCV13, could provide such vaccination
for those elderly persons who had never received subsidised pneumococcal
vaccination. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it has assessed the effectiveness of the aforesaid two subsidy
schemes and conducted studies on boosting the rate of elderly persons receiving
pneumococcal vaccination; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for
that;
(2) of the number of the elderly persons who have received the vaccination under
the aforesaid one-off measure so far and its percentage in the elderly
population; and
(3) whether it will consider implementing pneumococcal vaccination programme for
elderly persons on a long-term basis; if it will, of the details; if not, the
reasons for that?
Reply:
President:
Pneumococcal vaccination is one of the safe and effective measures to prevent
pneumococcal diseases. The Department of Health (DH) has all along been
implementing pneumococcal vaccination programmes based on the recommendations of
the Scientific Committee of the Vaccine Preventable Diseases (SCVPD) under the
Centre for Health Protection.
Based on the recommendations of the SCVPD, the following regular vaccination
programmes have been implemented since October 2009 for eligible elderly
persons.
(i) "Government Vaccination Programme" (including "Residential Care Home
Vaccination Programme") which provides free pneumococcal vaccination for
eligible elderly persons aged 65 or above; and
(ii) "Elderly Vaccination Subsidy Scheme" which provides subsidised pneumococcal
vaccination for elderly persons aged 65 or above through private doctors who
have joined the scheme.
Apart from the above regular programmes, the DH launched a one-off measure in
March 2015 to provide eligible elderly persons who have never received
pneumococcal vaccination before with 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine
(PCV13) so as to utilise the remaining stock under the one-off "Childhood PCV13
Booster Vaccination Programme".
More than 379 000 elderly persons aged 65 or above have received pneumococcal
vaccination through the above measures, accounting for about 34 per cent of the
age group concerned.
Eligible elderly persons may join the above vaccination programmes any time
throughout the year. Implementation of vaccination programmes is indeed one of
the Government's long-term and sustained measures in prevention of pneumonia.
The DH will continue to monitor the pneumococcal vaccination figures, coverage
of vaccination programmes and occurrence of pneumonia among the elderly persons,
and pay close attention to the SCVPD's recommendations and the latest
development, so as to review the arrangement of pneumococcal vaccination for the
elderly.
The SCVPD will convene a meeting at the end of this year and conduct a timely
review on the recommendations on pneumococcal vaccination according to the
latest local data, scientific information and international recommendations. If
the SCVPD has any updated recommendations, the DH will adjust the prevention
strategies and arrangements accordingly.
Ends/Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Issued at HKT 16:08
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