Press Releases

Transcript of Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food

Following is a transcript of the remarks made by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, at the Central Government Offices this morning (February 20):

Reporter: Would you comment on the boy who came down through the bird flu virus and the possibility that may be the virus has mutated into person to person...

Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food: I think it is very clear from the initial investigations of this family that had a number of members who came down with respiratory infections. One of the daughters died in China and we don't know what was the cause. What we know is that the son has been confirmed to have this avian flu virus that has infected the boy with pneumonia. The boy's condition is stable. The father died a few days earlier. We have not been able to establish the cause yet but we are pursuing it and we hope to be able to have more definitive results in a couple of days. The father has a post-mortem and we will have more information there. From the information that we have from both the laboratory and the epidemiological figures, it appears that they acquired infection after going back to Fujian. And of course you know that they went to a small village in Fujian which is quite isolated from the rest of the Mainland. There is a likelihood that the infection was acquired when they went back to Fujian. Certainly from the genetic sequencing that there is no evidence to suggest that it incorporated any human genes so that the human to human spread of infection is unlikely to be efficient. Based on the international experience and global experience with influenza, when these viruses incorporate human genes, then you have much greater propensity for human to human spread. So from our preliminary investigations, we suspect that the infection was acquired directly from chickens. There is certainly no need for anyone to be alarmed at this stage. Obviously, we are very concerned about the situation. We know that avian flu is endemic in this part of the world and we have been looking at how we should be able to control it. In Hong Kong, we have a very good surveillance system and that is why we are able to pick up many of these infections very early on. There is no suggestion that we have avian flu in any of the other pneumonias that we have in our public (hospital) system but we have stepped up our surveillance system.

Reporter: (inaudible)

Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food: When this family came back with a history of pneumonia, the Department of Health in fact contacted Beijing to tell them about these cases and inform them that there was a young girl that died when she was visiting the family in Fujian. So, this was done last week, even before we suspected that it was still avian flu. The Beijing authorities in fact then ask Fujian to investigate the issue and in fact we got a report from them last night to say that their preliminary investigations did not demonstrate that any of the other close family members, all the hospital staff that had been in contact with the girl had similar symptoms. So they have done some investigations.

We do not know the extent of this because as you know from the studies that we now know that a lot of migratory birds do carry this virus and of course migratory birds can spread it to domestic birds. So in this more remote island, there should obviously be migratory birds to be in contact with the domestic chickens that the family were rearing within the household. From the evidence so far, we suspected that maybe it is just an isolated thing, but obviously the problem in this part of the world is that we have lots of migratory birds. And that is why in Hong Kong we have seen this virus, as you remember, going into the Penfold Park and the Kowloon Park.

So, there are measures we need to review in terms of how to make sure our domestic fowl do not get infected first, this one is the first measure. The second measure is obviously to make sure that even though we have the chickens that are infected that it does not go into men.

Obviously, the whole series of measures that we have been doing, we are looking at vaccination as a strategy, we are looking at our surveillance systems, we are looking at the safety at our markets. But very importantly is that the infection comes from chickens to men through excretions of the chickens, this usually does not go into the air. So, it is really a matter of good personal hygiene. If you have good personal hygiene, when you are in contact or when you need to be in contact with live poultry, you must always wash your hands. So, it is a very simple preventive measure of good personal hygiene in washing your hands. The virus in faeces is an excretion and that is how it gets into men. Imagine you have good personal hygiene, most of the infections will not get into men.

Obviously, I think people are worried about spread from men to men but that is really something much further down the road. Currently, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that the infection is acquired from men to men. For all the intents and purposes, this appears to be quite isolated. Obviously, we know that it is a case for concern but there is certainly no reason for panic. We are really working very closely with Beijing and the Director of Health has also been in contact with the World Health Organisation who have already been in contact with Beijing. Of course, everyone takes it very seriously, both the authorities in Beijing, the authorities here, the authorities in Fujian, all take it very seriously.

So, I just want to reassure the public that this has been looked at very seriously and we have been doing everything possible to make sure that this little outbreak is contained. I think the Beijing authorities will do all they can to investigate the matter, to see whether there is any cause for alarm. We are in very close contact with them, as you know that, in fact we have been in contact with them constantly over the last couple of weeks. Very often, we are in contact with them a number of times in one day. So, the public does not need to be in panic. We have a very good surveillance system, we will ensure that we will minimise the risk.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion)

End/Thursday, February 20, 2003
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