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Health
Smoking Cessation and Prevention of Youth Smoking
The DH provides advice on how to quit smoking, counselling services and pharmaceutical treatment through various channels, including a hotline, clinics and an interactive online cessation centre. In 2012, 13,262 telephone calls were received by the smoking cessation hotline. The DH also broadcasts announcements on TV and radio, conducts seminars and issues health education materials to increase public awareness of the harmful effects of smoking and second-hand smoke. It also seeks the support of local organisations in promoting smoking cessation and since 2010 has collaborated with Pok Oi Hospital in providing a smoking cessation programme involving acupuncture.
In 2012, the DH organised the enterprise outreach and counselling programme in collaboration with the Lok Sin Tong Benevolent Society Kowloon to help frontline staff to quit smoking.
The HA also provides smoking counselling and cessation services through its nine full-time and 43 part-time 'Smoking Counselling and Cessation Centres'. It operates a telephone hotline providing booking and enquiry services for smokers who wish to quit smoking.
Disease Prevention and Control
The DH spent $1.8 billion on disease prevention and control at its maternal, child health and elderly health centres and similar facilities in the 2011-12 financial year.
Centre for Health Protection
The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) collaborates with its local and international counterparts to prevent and control diseases in Hong Kong. It works on three principles: real-time surveillance, rapid intervention and responsive risk communication. To carry out its mission, the centre works to protect the health of the community, promote healthy living in the community, and partner with stakeholders to achieve its objectives. The centre keeps track of communicable diseases and issues surveillance reports on a regular basis, as well as reports on laboratory data.
A board of scientific advisers, comprising experts from different disciplines, and seven scientific committees meets periodically to assist the centre in formulating effective policies to improve the local health protection system. Regular training and research programmes are also conducted.
The centre also uses health education campaigns and publicity programmes run in association with district councils to provide information and guidelines on diseases, alerting the public to health threats and facilitating rapid implementation of preventive measures. In addition, professional knowledge and experience in combating diseases is shared with other health authorities and agencies in the Mainland, in Macao and at the WHO.
Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases
The CHP continually reviews and updates its strategies for coping with major outbreaks of infectious diseases, ensuring that both the Government and the community are prepared to deal with them. A plan for mobilising volunteers in the event of an outbreak is also in place.
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