Press Releases

Transcript of SHWF on atypical pneumonia

The following are the remarks of the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, after attending radio programmes this morning (March 22):

Reporter: Canadian researchers said this virus is similar to the one that Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore had discovered. Would this make your work any easier?

Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food: Certainly, in terms of the virus the World Health Organisation and the laboratories will be doing confirmatory tests because I think we still have some reports of this virus been found in some of the patients. But I think we need much more tests to confirm to see what it is and what is the nature of this virus. But it's certainly encouraging that people are doing a lot of work and they are making positive findings. But I know that there are other laboratories that are doing similar work and there are reports of other viruses as well. We need to really ascertain which is the virus that is causing this infection.

Reporter: Would you let politics stand in the way of the health of Hong Kong people?

Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food: I think absolutely not. I think it's very clear but I just want to reaffirm, that our primary concern is public health. So our primary concern is not Hong Kong's image, in terms of tourism or the politics of it all. What we've been honestly trying to do is to give the Hong Kong community the most accurate and the most recent information. I can assure you that that's what we will continue to do. In fact, the Chief Executive himself, in my briefings to him, has reaffirmed also that as far as he is concerned that he sees this present outbreak in hospitals, in the same way as I do, that the primary concern must be public health. So I just want to reaffirm that our primary concern will be public health because all the other things are secondary. Unless you are doing it from the public health perspective, you are just postponing the problem. So we really want to get to the root of the problem and to be able to control the spread of this infection. I just want to give the community reassurance that we are doing everything possible. We will look at which areas we can do more of, and we will review our strategies etc, on the basis of the most recent knowledge and information.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion)

End/Saturday, March 22, 2003
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