Press Releases

Transcript of SHWF on severe respiratory syndrome

The following is the transcript of the Secretary for Health Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, at the press briefing on severe respiratory syndrom this afternoon (March 24):

This morning I met with the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Mr Tung, to report to him about the overall situation and reported to him my assessment of what we were doing and how I assess the current situation, and what I intend to do after the reassessment of the current information. And he agreed that in fact this is one of the most important tasks facing the government today in Hong Kong. So the government will be putting all its efforts. To all the departments and bureaux will be supporting us in our work to control this current infection that we are seeing in this very special, what we called this very severe respiratory syndrome. So this is our current work. Before I go on to talk about what we intend to do, I just want to say that this is a very important part of our work. Of course, when we look at our strategies they are evolving as we go along because as I said when I first met with you, we do not have all the answers to this current outbreak. We do not completely understand why this virus behaves the way it does. But increasingly as we go along, we have much more information. So our strategies and policies will have to be adjusted as we go along. One is of course based on science and clinical experience. The other way we have to proceed is based on some of the concerns expressed by the community.

So the most important aspect in our work is from the public health perspective and all the other things are secondary. So, just to reassure you that we are not trying to downplay any of the effects. We recognise that in fact the public health considerations must be first and foremost and all the other things are secondary to this. So just to let you know this is the position of the Government. And I have cleared this position with the Chief Executive and he fully supports this strategy that we are putting out, that it must be public health that comes first.

The total figures are that we now have 260 individuals with pneumonia. So the number of cases increased from yesterday is 18 for those with pneumonia. We have another five individuals who we are keeping under observation but do not have pneumonia, and the total number is 265. So, there are 260 with pneumonia plus five who are under observation. The comparative figure yesterday for both figures is an increase of 18. I will briefly give you the breakdown of the categories of these individuals. Seven of these individuals with pneumonia are health workers. So the category of health workers is seven. Five are related to the Prince of Wales cluster. So we have now seven. One related to the Queen Elizabeth cluster and one related to the Kowloon clinic cluster. Three of the health workers have been discharged from hospital, they have improved and been discharged. No change in figures for the medical students, they still remain at 17. Patients, relatives and visitors, we have a total increase of 11. So most of these are the contacts of the patients and relatives of those nine clusters.

In total, we have now 12 patients discharged. In intensive care, there are 38 individuals. Those are the figures. In total deaths, we had two additional deaths today. These were in patients not in the staff. One is an elderly gentleman with a blood disease; the other is a middle-aged gentleman who had hepatitis.

In total we have now 10 individuals who have died. Of these 10, six had associated health problems, underlying disease. So you remember that we had a patient with leukaemia, two patients with heart disease, one patient with chronic liver disease. Now today we have one with hepatitis and one with a blood disease. So we have six individuals with three underlying diseases. The other four individuals that passed away, they were either treated very late or came in very late or not treated. And there was one that was an elderly gentleman who arrived late. So in fact most of the deaths have been either in patients who presented very late in their disease or had underlying severe disease.

As you know we have been trying this new drug regimen called ribavirin and steroids. And among them, the assessment is that we now have over 100 individuals on treatment and the responses have been very encouraging. Eighty-five percent have shown improvements in their condition. So the responses are very encouraging. 85% of the patients that have been tried with this drug combination have shown improvements. So this is encouraging. So these are the facts and figures.

Before I go on to talk about the measures, perhaps we can have a discussion on the figures first.

Having reassessed the situations and looked at how things are evolving and the concerns expressed by various sectors of the community, because now some of the infections (these are not infection in schools) have been transmitted through the chain of contacts -- we now have students who have been to school and there is a fear of transmission to other students in schools. We also have now some individuals who are infected while some who also went to work. So there is quite a widespread concern in the community. And because of these concerns, we are revising our strategies based on the signs and the concerns expressed in the community.

So what we will be doing is the following. The Government, my Permanent Secretary, in fact, she had already met with Department heads last Saturday to work with them in terms of what needs to be done and how to get their support and co-operation in developing guidelines and helping us disseminate the information. So as for inter-departments, we are already interacting to see how we can co-ordinate efforts to tackle this current challenge. The second thing we are doing is: we are also developing guidelines that are sector-specific. We are developing guidelines for schools, for transport systems, for housing estates, for the catering industry, for various sectors where there is a need. We are now meeting with the Government departments and developing a whole list and then prioritising the guidelines, and we hope to be able to do that within the soonest possible time and then to see how they can be disseminated. So that is the second task we are doing.

The other thing that will be doing is that to continue this effort, it requires the total input and co-operation of the community. We obviously need to have some specific guidelines for the community so they can actively take part in this effort to contain the problem. We cannot contain the problem without the input of each and every citizen of Hong Kong, and each and every sector. So, we will be developing guidelines so that we will be telling people what they can do to help us contain this problem.

The third [task] is that we are also getting the help and inviting all the health professional organisations, whereas doctors, nurses, allied health workers, or any other health care organisations, private and public. We invite them to join us in partnership to see what we can do and learn from our experiences to get them as partners to help in our strategy to contain the problem because we need all health care workers to participate in our efforts. I will be inviting them to a meeting tomorrow so that we can really sit down and see what ideas they have and how they can take part, how they can help in containing this problem. The Department of Health has reprioritised all its resources and their primary and the most important task is to really follow through with all the public health measures that are necessary. So they are mobilising all their resources to tackle this problem in the Government, and particularly the Health Education Unit will be developing in co-operation with the sectors the specific guidelines and will be producing a whole series of health education measures and etc., to let the meeting know in terms of what role they can play in preventing and controlling the disease.

And lastly of course for the man in the street, the woman in the street and the child in the street, what can they do? I think there are a few simple things that they can do. As we said before, for each individual, if you are sick, do not go to work or do not go to school. And if you have a cough, you should always either use a mask, or use a handkerchief or a paper towel to cough into. I think it's very important also for all the colleagues at work -- if a colleague who is sick, you should not permit your colleague to go to work. The employers should also encourage all employees to stay at home if they are sick, especially if they have fever and cough. I think fever is a very cardinal sign of this infection and so if anyone who has fever and is ill, please remain at home and take precautions. So these are very general measures that can help, these are things that each one in the community can play a part in very actively.

And for the individual, there are a few key things that our citizens must do - hand washing -- that are very, very important. Hand washing before you touch your face, before you touch your eyes, before you touch your nose, before you touch your mouth. So three areas - eyes, nose and mouth. My experts tell me that we should encourage people to develop a habit not to touch with your hands the eyes, nose and mouth. This is how you get germs and they are spread into the body through mucosal contact. So it is not just a simple question of being coughed at. Fortunately this virus doesn't survive in the environment very long. Both agents have been identified by two universities, both of them did not survive in the environment very long but still it is long enough for people to pick it up. So it's very important when in public areas, it is always good habits ---- always wash your hands before touch your eyes, nose and mouth. Hand washing is a very important public health measure that will help contain the problem. Wearing your mask is also something that you can do, but I am reminded by my experts that even if you wear a mask and if it is contaminated, when you touch the mask and you touch your eyes, you still get contaminated. So wash your hands, don't touch your eyes, nose and mouth with your hands. So those are very simple things that people can do that can reduce the risk of transmission.

If you have a family member who is sick, always keep that family member at home. If you've colleagues who are sick, advise them not to come to work. Speak with your managers, employers and the management in the workplace, make sure that they are given sick leave and that they stay at home.

In conclusion, I just want to emphasize four points: One is that this public health issue is going to be one of the priority works of the Government of the SAR in the days ahead. So we are giving this work top-most priority and it will be from a public-health perspective. So this is the work of the Government of Hong Kong, not just my work. The second is that for us to be able to contain this problem, we need the participation of each one in Hong Kong and of each sector and of course when we do the guidelines, we will be disseminating them widely, through various media, through yourselves perhaps, we will also be working with you to see how you can help disseminate it. We will be using different forms to communicate with different sectors so we will be using our Government departments, various chambers, the District Councils, our Government announcements in public interest. The parties will be given to disseminate these messages and we will be contacting your editors and etc. to see how we can work with you to see how the messages can go out. So we will have a comprehensive list of guidelines to see what exact we can do. The third messages is for individuals. As I said, they have a very active part to play: they need to make sure that they wash their hands quickly. If they are sick, they should take the responsibility and do not go to work or to schools and make sure that their children do not go to schools. They should wear masks if they have a cough and they should develop a habit of not touching their eyes, nose and mouth. So these are what individuals can do actively. The fourth message is: we already see some signs of prejudice, and that people are discriminated against, simply because of the fear that some people are saying that you are a health care worker, that some of the children of health care workers are being discriminated against because of this fear. Of course, the biggest fear is fear itself, fear of the unknown. So it doesn't help contain the problem if people start to discriminate against people who have been in contact because these measures need to be balanced and sensible. It is because many of these things, if you start discriminating it will make people not want to come forward and people become very worried. Remember with HIV AIDS, when people start discriminating, people infected do not come forward. So discrimination itself will in fact undermine our work in addressing this problem.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion)

End/Monday, March 24, 2003