The Center for Health Protection (CHP) of the Hong Kong government announced Monday that it has been notified by the Guangdong Province Health Department of the mainland that there was no human case of avian influenza and atypical pneumonia in the province.

Consultant (Community Medicine) of the CHP, Dr. Thomas Tsang made the announcement after he chaired an inter-departmental meeting on avian influenza on Monday.

The meeting was attended by representatives from different Hong Kong government departments and health organizations including the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau, Department of Health, Hospital Authority, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, and the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.

When giving a roundup of the meeting, Dr. Tsang said that although there was no human case of avian flu in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province, recent reports of avian flu cases in other places of the Mainland and overseas as well as the detection of H5N1 virus in local wild birds had indicated that the disease remained a threat to the community.

According to Dr. Tsang, following the activation of the Alert Response Level of the government's Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Plan in January, 2005, preventive measures had been put in place in the disease surveillance system and poultry control measures at farms, markets and ports.

Additional measures will be implemented in the event of confirmed poultry outbreak or human cases of avian flu in Hong Kong, he said.

The Department of Health and the Hospital Authority have been working closely on infection control measures, including formulation of infection control guidelines and training of health care workers and carers.

At the community level, the government has widely publicized messages of avian flu and pandemic influenza prevention via different channels, such as TV, radio, internet, outreach programs, seminars and publicity materials.

Also, the government will continue to maintain close liaison with the World Health Organization and the Chinese mainland authorities to obtain the latest information about the global and regional situation, said Dr. Tsang who introduced related measures that had been put up between Hong Kong, Macao and the Mainland authorities in recent years.

Hong Kong signed the Co-operation Agreements on response Mechanism for Public Health Emergencies with the Mainland Ministry of Health and Macao in October, 2005, and with Guangdong and Macao health departments in June, 2006.

Meanwhile, a notification agreement was signed with the Mainland Ministry of Agriculture on animal diseases, including avian flu. The ministry will notify Hong Kong of outbreaks of avian flu among poultry and other major animal diseases.

With many people traveling overseas during the Chinese New Year holiday, Dr. Tsang called on people who planned to go to areas with avian flu cases to be extra vigilant and observe good personal hygiene to prevent infection.

"People should strictly observe personal and environmental hygiene, and stay away from dead birds, avoid contact with wild birds and live poultry and their droppings," he said, adding "they are also urged not to feed or release wild birds, and surrender their pet birds to Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department's animal management centers for disposal if they no longer want to keep pet birds."

(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2007)