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Letters | Is Hospital Authority putting Cathay to shame in failing to protect pregnant staff amid measles outbreak?
- Everyone understands measles vaccines and test kits are scarce resources, but pregnant women and their fetuses are the most vulnerable group in society
- To refuse a heavily pregnant employee a measles antibody blood test is shocking
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Why you can trust SCMP
Measles during pregnancy carries significant risks for both the mother and the fetus. Complications include premature birth, placenta involvement leading to stillbirth, serious pneumonia, encephalitis and even maternal death. It is also common knowledge that pregnant women and newborns cluster together during medical check-ups and follow-ups at prenatal and newborn clinics.
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Everyone understands measles vaccines and test kits are scarce resources, but pregnant women and their fetuses are the most vulnerable group in our society. It is thus appalling to learn that the Hospital Authority is currently turning down requests from pregnant staff to receive measles antibody blood tests, although it is fully aware of the potentially deadly consequences of exposing a non-immune mother to likely sources of infection in the front line.
My Hospital Authority employee wife who is 36 weeks pregnant was refused the measles blood test on April 9, despite requests from herself and her supervisor or chief of service, Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital’s chief executive. So the only logical conclusion is that it is the authority’s current policy to ignore the welfare of its pregnant staff.
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It is shocking to see the authority treating its pregnant staff worse than Cathay Pacific. When the Hospital Authority can’t even look after its staff, how much faith can we put in its ability to look after our citizens?
Dr Edmond Wong Man Lok, Kowloon Tong
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