Leung Ting-hung of Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection has admitted experiencing difficulties chasing up travellers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the worst recorded outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus is taking place.
Those arriving from the three West African nations have been reluctant to provide contact details upon arrival in Hong Kong. A “directive information sheet” has also been issued to all travellers with a passport from the aforementioned countries, but Leung acknowledged that visitors with symptoms may not necessarily tell the truth, using the 2009 swine flu pandemic as an example of such behaviour.
Despite the high mortality rate, Secretary for Food and Health Ko Wing-man said that any screening requires cooperation from the travellers, unlike in Macau, where all citizens of the three countries must undergo a compulsory health check upon arrival and daily follow ups during their stay.
Leung has, however, emphasised the unlikelihood of an outbreak in city. “The mode of spread of the disease is not that infectious. It is through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluid of the patients,” he told the Standard.
A woman returned to Hong Kong from Kenya last week, and was kept in isolation after displaying symptoms of Ebola. However, she tested negative for the virus and there have been no more suspected cases since.
Currently without a cure or vaccine, Ebola has a staggeringly high death rate; approximately 55 percent of all reported cases have been fatal, according to the World Health Organisation. However, not all hope is lost, as the National Institute of Health in the USA is due to start trials for an Ebola vaccine that has been showing promising results in tests.
Photo: Hulton Archives
