Health 171
community partners to promote public awareness and prevention of HIV and to promote caring and acceptance of HIV patients. In 2010, the centre organised 23 major activities and 101 special programmes, from which some 81 889 participants benefited. The number of new and active HIV patients reported in 2010 was 389, compared with 396 in 2009.
A 24-hour, trilingual (Cantonese, Putonghua and English) AIDS hotline, 2780 2211, provides information on AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), sexually transmitted diseases and HIV testing. Appointments for a counselling service and HIV antibody/rapid tests may be made on the hotline. In 2010, about 14 178 calls were made to nurse counsellors on the hotline by people seeking AIDS counselling. About 0.98 million condoms were distributed to promote safer sex. There is also a telephone hotline called The Gay Men HIV Testing Hotline, 2117 1069, and a website, www.21171069.com, to advise men who have sex with men. In 2010, the Gay Men HIV Testing Hotline received a total of 254 calls for counselling and HIV antibody/rapid testing.
Organ Donation
The DH launched a Centralised Organ Donation Register (CODR) in 2008 and joined the HA, the Hong Kong Medical Association, the Hong Kong Society of Transplantation and various NGOs in the continuous promotion of organ donation as a charitable life-saving act.
Potential donors are encouraged to record their names in the register, expressing their wish to donate their organs after death and to make their wish known to their families. As at the end of 2010, the CODR recorded the wish of over 69 000 people.
For the statistics on cadaveric organ donations, there were 42 liver, 74 renal, 13 heart, 2 double-lung and 250 cornea donations from the deceased in Hong Kong's public hospitals in 2010. However, the number of patients waiting for kidney, liver, heart and double-lung transplants stood at 1 621, 91, 8 and 12 respectively as at the end of 2010.
Smoking and Health
China is a state party to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) of the World Health Organisation (WHO), rendering provisions of the convention to be applicable to Hong Kong. The tobacco control policy of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government aims, through a step-by-step approach, to discourage smoking, contain the proliferation of tobacco use and protect the public from passive smoking to the maximum extent possible.
The Government adopts a multi-pronged approach to the issue, including publicity, education, legislation, enforcement, encouragement to stop smoking, and taxation.