• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Hong Kong Health Chief Say Risk of Pig Fever Outbreak Low

Posted on: Sunday, 31 July 2005, 06:00 CDT

Text of report by Radio TV Hong Kong audio website on 31 July

[Newsreader] The director of health, Lam Ping-yan, says the risk of having a streptococcus suis outbreak in the territory is low. Dr Lam said that although preparations were under way to list the pig- borne disease as a statutory notifiable infectious disease, he didn't see the need for it at the moment.

[Lam ] According to the information provided by the Ministry of Health, virtually most of the cases were caused by direct contact of the pig farmers with diseased pigs, ok. So it's quite consistent with the usual mode of transmission of an occupational exposure. The evidence in support of it being a streptococcus suis infection is it responded very well to antibiotic at the early stage of the disease. So I do not see any reason for Hong Kong to be sort of similarly exposed to such kind of risk.

[Newsreader] Dr Lam also sought to dismiss concerns that members of the public could be infected with the disease through contact with raw pork.

[Law] We do not - should not look at the number alone because there are not that many, sort of, pig farmers in Hong Kong, ok. But we compared the incident rate - we are still satisfied that the incidence of it being an occupational exposure is many, many times higher than the exposure in ordinary citizens.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

More News in this Category