The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government is studying options for setting up an organization similar to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, an official said Wednesday.
Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong told the Legislative Council that an experts committee assigned to review the management and control of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak in Hong Kong will also cover the disease control and prevention center in its deliberations.
"We will work out the details of the location and the estimated costs for setting up and operating the proposed organization after the structure and mode of operation of the organization have been finalized," Yeoh said.
The proposed organization's functions may include applied research and development to enable prompt response to any emerging infection, he said.
The organization will also work closely with tertiary institutions and commission applied research projects which have immediate field application for control and prevention of communicable diseases, including research on effective modalities of prevention using therapies from authenticated sources, Yeoh noted.
(Xinhua News Agency June 12, 2003)
