2004-11-19
The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health in collaboration with about 30 government departments and agencies launched a two-day drill (November 18 and 19) to test their preparedness in case of an outbreak of an unknown communicable disease in Hong Kong.
The exercise, code-name Maple, is organized by the CHP in response to the SARS Expert Committee's recommendations of the development and regular testing of contingency plans by the government to deal with public health emergencies.
More than 250 players including the Acting Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang and the Secretary for Health Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow are involved in the drill, and a total of 10 local, Mainland and overseas experts have been invited to be observers of the exercise.
"It provides an opportunity for the government and relevant stakeholders to practise and review contingency plans for combating SARS-like communicable diseases and to assess the integration of the CHP into these plans," the Director of Health, Dr PY Lam said.
The focus was on communication between the Emergency Response Centre of the CHP and the various command and communication centres of the parties concerned, he said.
Dr Lam said that the drill would strengthen inter-agency communication and the ability and confidence to cope with the attack of communicable diseases to the community.
"The adequacy of contingency operational protocols formulated by the departments and agencies concerned would be assessed after the exercise.
"To meet the challenges from new and unknown disease is a formidable task. We need to adopt an anticipatory approach to disease prevention and control, with emphasis on awareness, alertness and preparedness which hold the key to any success in the fight against communicable diseases," Dr Lam added.
The exercise scenario involved two clusters of medical and health care workers in two public hospitals who developed fever and gastroenteritis symptoms after having close contacts with two index patients respectively. The situation triggered the government's overall emergency mechanism on the outbreak of an unknown communicable disease.
During the first day of the exercise, the CHP, upon notification from the HA about the outbreaks in the two hospitals, started epidemiological investigations and contact tracing. The CHP also arranged for close contacts of the patients to be quarantined to contain the spread of the disease.
The Level One Steering Committee under the chairmanship of the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, was activated to review the adequacy of control measures and the response mechanism and to decide on what additional control and support measures were needed.
When the disease was later defined by the World Health Organisation as "Severe Haemorrhagic Fever Syndrome" (SHFS, a notional name designed for the purpose of the exercise), steps were taken to include SFSF in Schedule 1 of "Infectious Diseases" of Cap 141. Corresponding measures, including isolation and home confinement, were then initiated.
When SHFS Level Two was activated, the Acting Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, convened the Level Two Steering Committee to formulate and direct an overall disease control strategy and decide what other measures should be taken, including decisions that have a wider impact on the community.
The exercise came to the end with a mock evacuation of residents from a building affected by SHFS.
End/Friday, November 19, 2004