The Government Influenza Vaccination Programme (GIVP) for 2007/08 started today (November 5) covering about 300 000 people in the eight needy or high risk categories.
More than 60 000 elderly people living in 770-plus residential care homes will receive free influenza vaccination from today to November 30, followed by mop-up vaccination until early 2008.
The Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, visited an elderly home in Shau Kei Wan this morning to see for himself the implementation of the Influenza Vaccination Programme in Elderly Homes.
"The programme helps protect them from complications of influenza infection by immunization prior to the peak influenza season," he said.
The Government has been providing free vaccinations to all elderly living in residential care homes in Hong Kong since 1998. The programme has all along been well received, with a coverage rate of 93% in 2006.
Elderly persons living in residential care homes were among one of the eight GIVP target groups recommended by the Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases (SCVPD) established under the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (DH)."
Other target groups included:
* Long-stay residents of institutions for the disabled;
* Elderly persons aged 65 years or above with chronic illness attending follow up appointments in public clinics, or receiving Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA);
* Persons aged under 65 years with chronic illness who are on CSSA, and some in-patients of the Hospital Authority(HA) who had chronic illness;
* Health care workers of DH, HA and other government departments, as well as health care workers in elderly homes or institutions for the disabled;
* Poultry workers or staff who may be in contact with poultry in the poultry culling operations;
* Children aged from six to 23 months from families receiving CSSA;
* All pregnant women receiving CSSA.
As advised by the SCVPD, vaccines to be used for this year's GIVP will follow the recommendations of the World Health Organization for the 2007/08 season (northern hemisphere winter), which will contain:
* A/Solomon Islands/3/2006(H1N1)-like virus;
* A/Wisconsin/67/2005(H3N2)-like virus, and
* B/Malaysia/2506/2004-like virus
To prevent influenza and other respiratory tract infections, the public are advised to adopt a healthy lifestyle and adhere to the following health advice:
* To build up good body immunity by having a proper diet, regular exercise and adequate rest, reducing stress and avoiding smoking;
* To maintain good personal hygiene, and wash hands after sneezing, coughing and wear a mask when developing symptoms of respiratory infections;
* To maintain good ventilation;
* To avoid visiting crowded places with poor ventilation, especially during peak flu season.
The public may obtain information on influenza and influenza vaccination by calling DH's health education (pre-recorded) hotline at 2833 0111 or from CHP's website: http://www.chp.gov.hk.
Ends/Monday, November 5, 2007