Replies to LegCo questions
Legislative Council Question No. 5 (Oral Reply)
Date of Sitting: 30 January 2002
Asked by: Hon David CHU
Replied by: Secretary for Health and Welfare
Question :
It has been reported that currently an estimated one million or so people in the Mainland are infected with HIV, and there may likely be an upsurge in the number of local infection cases as a result of increasingly frequent cross-border activities. Regarding the curbing of the spread of AIDS, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the details of its efforts to curb the spread of AIDS, and how they are prioritized in terms of resource allocation;
(b) whether it has formulated any specific policies, task objectives, high risk behaviour monitoring systems and cross-border co-operation mechanisms to curb cross-border transmission of AIDS; if not, of the reasons for that; and
(c) whether it has assessed if the existing health care and other service systems in Hong Kong can cope with an upsurge in the number of persons infected with HIV, and whether contingency measures have been formulated in this respect?
Reply :
Madam President,
HIV/AIDS is a global phenomenon. It is estimated that 40 million people across the world are living with the virus. Hong Kong has a relatively low HIV rate, estimated at less than 0.1% of the adult population. There are about 2000 to 3000 HIV infected persons in Hong Kong. About 200 new cases are diagnosed each year and reported to the Department of Health (DH).
(a) Government adopts a three-pronged approach to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS, i.e. through prevention, surveillance and clinical management. Resources have been allocated to carry out activities in all three areas.
A comprehensive preventive programme is an essential first step in the control of HIV/AIDS. The DH, together with other health care providers and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), offers a full range of preventive programmes. DH runs a dedicated HIV Prevention and Health Promotion Team to organise activities on
(a) communication and information (such as publication of regular periodicals, maintenance of web pages and media campaign);
(b) capacity building (such as organisation of training courses for health care workers, internet-based continuing education programme and compilation of protocols/manuals); and
(c) preventive intervention (such as condom promotion and distribution, outreach programme for drug users and promotional events for cross-border travellers.)
Other health programmes have also incorporated HIV prevention to take advantage of their access to target clientele. For example, the methadone clinics provide harm reduction services in the form of methadone treatment and risk reduction counselling for drug users daily. Social Hygiene Clinics provide free treatment for sexually transmitted diseases (STD), HIV tests and risk reduction counselling to clients. Pregnant women using health care services in the public sector are offered universal antenatal HIV testing to prevent parent-to-child transmission of HIV. Private practitioners are also encouraged to offer such services. Moreover, the Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service will ensure blood safety by implementing stringent screening of donors.
Government also works closely with NGOs and the community in the prevention of HIV/AIDS. The AIDS Trust Fund, set up by Government in 1993, provides financial support to community-based HIV prevention activities organised by NGOs. So far about $60 million have been granted to NGOs to implement 342 publicity and public education projects targeting at different groups, including youth, commercial sex workers, cross-border travellers, etc.
We have in place a well-developed surveillance system to collect, analyse and disseminate epidemiological information. The system includes HIV/AIDS reporting, seroprevalence studies, STD surveillance and behavioural surveillance.
About 900 HIV/AIDS patients are receiving treatment in the public sector which provides multi-disciplinary medical and psychological care to these patients. To enhance the standard of care, DH will promulgate updated guidelines on HIV management to all doctors shortly.
(b) Our main strategy is to target interventions at those with high behavioural risk for HIV/AIDS. As mentioned in (a) above, in view of the global prevalence of HIV/AIDS, we have in place a comprehensive programme to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, including among cross-border travellers given the high incidence of travelling among the local population and the large number of visitors to Hong Kong from different parts of the world.
There is continuous dialogue between Hong Kong and the Mainland on health issues. For example, meetings were held among the health authorities of Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao and Hainan to discuss issues relating to communicable diseases. Moreover, a group of epidemiologists and HIV specialists in the Pearl River Delta Region has been meeting regularly since 1997 to track the AIDS epidemic and discuss issues of common concern.
DH operates the Red Ribbon Centre, which is an AIDS education, resource and research centre designated as an UNAIDS (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) Collaborating Centre for Technical Support. The Centre organises capacity-building programmes in support of HIV prevention, control and care activities in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in the Mainland, including a fellowship programme for Mainland AIDS workers, distribution of AIDS education materials, and workshops to network public health professionals from the Pearl River Delta region for improving the surveillance mechanism in the region.
(c) In the planning of the medical services for patients with HIV/AIDS, Government has taken into consideration the likely increase in infected persons over time. To make effective use of available resources and medical expertise, management of HIV infected persons has been integrated with existing health programmes such as STD. Furthermore, with the advent of new drug treatment regime, many patients are treated on a specialist outpatient basis. The Integrated Treatment Centre at Kowloon Bay provides treatment on an outpatient basis for both HIV infected persons and STD patients. A new centre will also be set up later this year in Fanling.