Thursday, July 31, 2014, 08:40
HKSAR prepares for Ebola amid false alarm
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News of the first Ebola “victim” outside Africa was widely reported by the international media on Wednesday. The Oriental Daily News reported on its front page that a Hong Kong woman was exhibiting early symptoms of the deadly virus after spending two weeks in eastern Kenya.
The Ebola outbreak in the West African countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone is the deadliest since the notorious virus was identified in 1976. An airline passenger who died in Nigeria also tested positive. But Kenya and the rest of the continent had still not reported any cases — as of Wednesday.
Secretary for Food and Health Ko Wing-man told reporters that in addition to presenting symptoms, a patient must also have a specific travel or contact history before they would be classified as a suspected case. Local authorities had not identified any other cases of suspected Ebola infection.
The sick woman, according to the Hospital Authority’s Chief Infection Control Officer Dominic Tsang Ngai-chong, vomited briefly when she was admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Tuesday. But she had already been discharged the following day after her fever subsided.
In the light of lessons learned from the 2003 SARS crisis, health authorities are not taking the threat lightly. Ko said the outbreak in Africa was “quite serious”. He said the government was very concerned as infected individuals may visit Hong Kong by plane.
A series of precautionary measures were introduced in Hong Kong on Wednesday. General practitioners and hospital emergency rooms will be instructed to report to the Centre for Health Protection if a person shows fever symptoms and had traveled to Liberia, Guinea or Sierra Leone in the past 21 days.
The suspected patient would then be transferred to a specialized quarantine facility at Princess Margaret Hospital in Kwai Chung. A round-the-clock laboratory run by the Health Department will test the patient’s blood samples. The results should then be known within three hours.
Letters will outline the instructions to doctors. Information will also be posted on a dedicated Web page. Healthcare workers at public hospitals will also receive training. They will attend seminars in the coming days to ensure they are informed of new measures to keep themselves safe should they need to treat Ebola patients.
Dominic Tsang, who oversees infection control at public hospitals, said workers at the quarantine ward would be heavily protected. The facility has a capacity of 59. The authority will monitor the situation closely and improve its plans if necessary.
Sophia Chan Siu-chee, under-secretary for food and health, appealed to the public on a radio program to learn more about the disease.
The Ebola virus is spread by blood or bodily fluids. Early symptoms include fever, muscle pains and headaches. This is followed by nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Liver and kidney functions will weaken and then bleeding will occur. There is no single cure and the mortality rate is over 60 percent.
While there is no direct air link between Hong Kong and West Africa, the Department of Health’s Consultant of Community Medicine, Chuang Shuk-kwan, said air passengers who had traveled through infected areas could still end up in Hong Kong as many travelers come to the city from Africa through other airport hubs.
Some of them are aid workers. Hong Kong Red Cross has sent a medical worker and a clinical psychologist to Liberia to help. A spokesman for the aid agency in Hong Kong said they had no plans to pull any personnel out.
Airlines have suspended services to the affected countries. Two US-based missionary groups ordered evacuations of non-essential workers from Liberia on Tuesday.
kahon@chinadailyhk.com
