ENG-2010 — Page 222

176 Health

Vaccination Programmes

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 for the elderly or the disabled, 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. Two vaccination subsidy schemes, with a total of about 1 500 participating private doctors, were launched on November 1, 2010.

The Government also continues to provide free seasonal influenza vaccination and pneumococcal vaccination for all eligible residents living in residential care homes for the elderly or the disabled through over 300 visiting registered doctors under the Residential Care Home Vaccination Programme in the form of PPP.

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 54.2 per cent of all registered deaths in 2010. 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 DH drew up 'Promoting Health in Hong Kong: A Strategic Framework for Prevention and Control of Non- communicable Diseases', and formed a steering committee comprising representatives from the Government, public and private sectors, academia,