Press Release - March 21, 2003

The Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong today (March 21) urged doctors to wear masks when seeing patients, particularly those with respiratory symptoms.

He told a press conference that health care professionals and their families still made up the majority of cases indicating that the disease was transmitted by close contact and that it was very infectious in its late stages.

Other simple preventive measures he said the whole community should take were: children should not go to school with cough and fever; people with cough and cold should wear a mask; and all people should cough into a handkerchief or tissue rather than into other people's faces.

Dr Yeoh also said the Accident and Emergency Department at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong would remain closed for another week because of a manpower shortage created by having to deal with the atypical pneumonia cases.

The HKSAR Deputy Director of Health, Dr Leung Pak-yin, and the HKSAR Hospital Authority's Director (Professional Services and Public Affairs), Dr Ko Wing-man, accompanied Dr Yeoh at the press conference.

Updating the number of cases, Dr Yeoh said there were 197 atypical pneumonia patients, compared with 165 the previous day (March 20).

Another six people were being kept under observation, bringing the total number of confirmed and suspected cases to 203, compared with 173 the previous day.

Of these, 38 were in intensive care. Dr Ko said he believed more people would require intensive care as the course of the illness progressed.

He said another "cluster" of cases had been reported from the Baptist Hospital, making nine clusters altogether: four associated with the original sufferer who stayed at a hotel in Kowloon, and five in the community.

The new group involved three people and the case was being investigated, he said.

In response to questions, Dr Yeoh said the mainland health authorities were co-operating fully with their Hong Kong counterparts. He said the difference in size between China and Hong Kong, and the different medical systems that existed in each place, meant that it was much easier to collect information in the SAR than on the Mainland.

Dr Yeoh said 70 per cent of the first round of about 100 patients had improved with the current treatment of ribavirin and steroids. Other than the few patients who died after receiving the treatment at a later stage of illness, the remaining patients are stable.

For updated information and latest news on respiratory tract infections, please visit the special home page on the subject at www.info.gov.hk/info/infection-e.htm, and the HKSAR Department of Health website at www.info.gov.hk/dh/ap.htm as well as the e-bulletin at www.news.gov.hk/en/index.shtml.