With Hong Kong confirming yet more cases of imported swine flu, the question is not if, but when, locally contracted cases will start to occur. Despite tightened port health measures, health authorities conceded on May 19 that 'it is only a matter of time before the first local human swine flu case emerges in Hong Kong'.
With at least 13,000 travellers on average arriving each day in Hong Kong from the United States, Canada, Britain and Japan, it would not be possible to halt all arrivals from these countries, the Food and Health Bureau and the Health Department said.
'It is our assessment that we are now probably at the late stage of the containment phase of our disease control strategy,' a government paper said.
Until the first signs of local spread, the strategy will continue to be containment of possible onward transmission from imported cases. This will involve contacts taking a supervised dose of the antiviral drug Tamiflu and medical surveillance at government clinics, rather than quarantine.
The decision was made based on new scientific insights and evolving global and regional situations. Health authorities isolated hundreds of guests and staff at Metropark Hotel, where the first imported case stayed. No quarantine orders were imposed for subsequent cases.
'If there are local cases, the government will stop tracing close contacts of patients and instead focus on treating those infected,' said Thomas Tsang Ho-fai, controller of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP).
