ENG-2010 — Page 221

Health | 175

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, links with other health authorities and agencies on the Mainland, in Macao and at the WHO have been reinforced to share professional knowledge and experience in combating diseases.

Contingency Planning for Infectious Disease Outbreaks

The Centre for Health Protection continually reviews and updates its strategies for coping with major outbreaks of infectious diseases, ensuring 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.

The centre organises drills every year to test Hong Kong's preparedness. In June 2010, in conjunction with the Airport Authority and the Port Health Office, the centre organised an exercise named 'Hua Shan' to test co-ordination of various parties in responding to a public health emergency originating at the Hong Kong International Airport and their surge capacity in such an occurrence. In October 2010, the centre organised another exercise code-named 'Nephrite' in collaboration with relevant departments, with the aim of testing the departments' response to an imported case of plague.

Human Swine Influenza and Communicable Diseases

The total number of statutory notifiable infectious diseases in Hong Kong is 47. During the year, about 21 400 cases were reported, of which about 5 100 and 2 700 were diagnosed as tuberculosis and human swine influenza respectively.

In April 2009, confirmed cases of human swine influenza were reported in Mexico and the United States and continued to emerge in other parts of the world. On May 1, 2009, Hong Kong confirmed its first imported case of the disease. During the containment phase at the early stage of the outbreak, the Government strengthened its control efforts on all fronts. As the human swine influenza virus circulated widely in the local community and around the globe, the Government's strategy moved from the containment phase into mitigation. The aim was to relieve the burden of the disease on the community and public health services.

Major measures included vaccination programmes, antiviral stockpiling, provision of a sustainable medical service, promotion of basic measures such as personal and environmental hygiene, enhanced epidemic surveillance, and risk communication. Human swine influenza activity in Hong Kong has been steadily declining since its peak in September 2009 and has remained low. The clinical severity of human swine influenza also has not changed during the past year. Hence, the Government lowered the influenza response level under the Framework of Government's Preparedness Plan for Influenza Pandemic from 'Emergency' to 'Alert' Response Level with effect from May 24, 2010 and amended the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance to delete swine influenza from the list of statutory notifiable infectious diseases on October 8, 2010. Our influenza surveillance efforts will continue.