Health Secretary York Chow Yat-ngok said on Friday that Hong Kong people should prepare for a second wave of human swine flu infections.
Chow made the comments after attending the 60th session of the World Health Organisation's Regional Committee in Hong Kong.
“We will probably follow some Northern Hemisphere countries and experience a second wave... so we have to prepare for the worst,” he said.
Chow said health authorities would have to ensure there were adequate supplies of vaccines before the onset of winter.
“The vaccination programme should be able to start before the so-called winter peak rise,” he explained.
Centre for Health Protection Controller Thomas Tsang Ho-fai said the CHP would also revise its strategy for combating swine flu.
Tsang told reporters 99.5 per cent of confirmed swine flu cases were mild. But confirmed figures did not always reflect the actual number of people infected with swine flu.
Tsang said this was because many people had not received tests for swine flu. Therefore, CHP will update the latest number of confirmed cases every week - rather than each day, he added.
Tsang said the hospitals would give priority to critical and high-risk patients from next Monday at designated flu clinics and accident and emergency departments.
Critical and high-risk patients include:
- Pregnant women
- Children aged 12 months or under
- Healthcare workers, including staff from residential homes
- Patients living in health institutions that have not had swine flu outbreaks
- Influenza patients with persistent fevers (over 38°Celsius) or those whose conditions deteriorate.
As of Thursday afternoon, there were 24,681 confirmed cases of swine flu in Hong Kong. Some 19 swine flu patients have died. Figures for Friday were not yet available, a Department of Health spokesman told SCMP.com.
For more information, see: Hospital Authority
SCMP. Sep. 25, 2009.
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3 comments:
The swine flu is a high-infectious disease. In Hong Kong, there’re 19 patients, who have suffered from long-term sickness, have died because of it and 24,681 were confirmed as cases of swine flu. It is unfortunate to hear that there are students in our school are part of the confirmed cases of swine flu. Wish they can recover as soon as possible and get back to school for lessons.
In addition, we need to pay absolute attention to prevent swine flu. Wash hands with liquid soap before eating, wear a mask or stay at home when suffering from illness, etc. These are crucial steps in order to lower the opportunity of having swine flu.
However, I’ve an enquiry about the school policy, which is about the air-conditioning problem that we’re told to switch off the air conditioners at lunch hours.
It is understandable that if there is a student having the germs of swine flu, through the air-conditioning system, other students will be infected easily, therefore, the school carries out a policy so as to keep good ventilation in classrooms.
If we examine the matter in depth, the idea is reasonable, yet not convincing. What if there’s a student carrying the viruses and attend lessons as normal, without wearing a mask, still the viruses will be spread all over the classroom through the air-conditioning system and the others will be infected. It is an irony that we’re told to switch off the air conditioners at lunch hours, but not for the whole day of school.
The policy is a possible way to prevent, or say, lower the probability of having swine flu or other diseases, but it is too superficial. The more efficient way is to clean the dust filters and make use of the air fresheners, which is a better recipe for the school to resolve the problem.
Bryan,
I think I can't agree with you more. It is always a good idea to have as much fresh air as possible. However, people do not usually think in such a way. They usually put their priority on the room temperature than on the air quality. In my other F.6 class, the school tried to force them to open up all windows. The result was, nearly the whole class complained, and we had to give in. So, my only suggestion is to ask those who are sick to stay at home or wear a mask at all times within the school area.
After the first wave of human swine flu , i believe HK government had learned a lot to prevent human swine flu .
In this monent , I think vaccine is very important because it can help us to prevent the flu , specially for young childens , eldly people and pregnant women .
I feel very sad since 19 patients have died , maybe they are suffered from long term illness . I hope that HK government can perform better , if the second wave is coming , they would know how to solve this problems .
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