ENG-2009 — Page 230

170 Health

Children in Hong Kong are protected against communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis B, poliomyelitis, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps and rubella under a 'Childhood Immunisation Programme'. To minimise the adverse effects of vaccination, the oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) and whole-cell pertussis (wP) vaccine were replaced by the inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) and acellular pertussis (aP) respectively from February 2007. On the advice of experts and the Centre for Health Protection, the Government included pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in the Childhood Immunisation Programme from September 1, 2009. At the same time, the Government launched a one-off catch-up programme to provide. pneumococcal vaccinations to children born between September 1, 2007 and June 30, 2009.

Since 1998, the Government has been providing target groups with free seasonal influenza vaccinations each year at public hospitals and clinics. On the recommendation of the Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases, in 2009-10 the Government extended the scope of the influenza vaccination programme to provide free seasonal influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations to all elderly persons living in residential care homes, those aged 65 years or above with chronic illness attending public clinics, and those aged 65 years or above receiving Comprehensive Social Security Assistance.

To reflect its increased scope, the scheme was renamed the 'Government Vaccination Programme'. On October 19, 2009 the Government introduced two new vaccination subsidy schemes to provide subsidies for elderly people and young children receiving vaccinations at private clinics. The 'Elderly Vaccination Subsidy Scheme' applies to persons aged 65 years or above, while the Childhood Influenza Vaccination Subsidy Scheme caters to children aged between six months and less than six years.

These vaccination programmes help to protect high risk groups and prevent them against related complications, hospitalisation and mortality.

Non-communicable Diseases

The biggest killers in Hong Kong are cancer, heart and cerebrovascular diseases, which together accounted for about 60 per cent of all registered deaths in 2009. Elderly people are the biggest victims of these chronic non-communicable diseases which will continue to cause increasing number of deaths in Hong Kong as the population ages. To combat this problem, in 2008 the Department of Health drew up 'Promoting Health in Hong Kong: A Strategic Framework for Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases'.

A steering committee comprising representatives from the Government, public and private sectors, academia, professional bodies, industry and other key partners was formed to oversee the framework's implementation. Common chronic non- communicable diseases are mostly associated with lifestyle. In this connection, two working groups were set up under the steering committee to put forward recommendations on issues of diet and physical activity as well as injuries and alcohol misuse.