Hong Kong, China discuss Sars warning system

Hong Kong health officials met yesterday with their counterparts in China's southern Guangdong province, the birthplace of the Sars virus, to hammer out ways to help prevent future epidemics.

China was harshly criticised for covering up the disease initially and Hong Kong officials are pressing for a system to receive prompt health alerts from the mainland.

"Our officials are in Guangdong today to discuss a notification system," Health Secretary Yeoh Eng-kiong told reporters at a briefing.

The flu-like disease first surfaced in southern China late last year. It was brought into Hong Kong in late February and was then spread around the world by air travellers.

A total of 1,755 people have been infected with Sars in the city of nearly seven million and 296 have died.

No new cases were reported yesterday, bringing Hong Kong one step closer to being removed from the World Health Organisation's list of Sars-affected areas.

The WHO says Hong Kong will be automatically removed from the list 20 days after its last case was isolated, which was June 2.

But local health officials remain cautious, noting the territory still has one suspected case, which was isolated on June 9.

The government hopes that Hong Kong's removal from the WHO's list will be a further step toward convincing tourists that it is a safe place to visit.

The former British colony was removed from the WHO's travel advisory list late last month but its badly-hit tourism and leisure industries continue to languish.

A total of 1,403 patients have been discharged, including seven yesterday.

A new survey showed that at the onset of the epidemic in February, each new Sars patient infected 2.7 people in Hong Kong. But the number had declined to one by mid March and to 0.14 by early April.

The study, conducted by the University of Hong Kong and Imperial College in London, suggested that the control measures taken by the health authorities and self-imposed restrictions by members of the public had a major impact in containing the disease.

Many people avoided crowded places during the epidemic and took other precautions such as wearing face masks and improving their personal hygiene.