HONG KONG: With the arrival of 500,000 doses of human swine flu vaccine, Hong Kong's largest vaccination scheme ever will start on December 21, which is designed to protect people against swine flu and prepare them for the coming seasonal flu.

"This exercise of human swine flu vaccination is a very large scale program designed to protect the health of Hong Kong people - especially the five key target groups," said Under Secretary for Food and Health Gabriel Leung.

Under the program, about 2 million people fall under the five target groups and they include chronically ill patients and pregnant women, children aged from six months to under six years, elderly aged 65 and above, healthcare workers, pig farmers and slaughterhouse workers. They will be given free vaccinations starting from December 21 at hospitals, clinics and medical centers under the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority on a voluntary base.

The Department of Health and the Hospital Authority are putting together a total of about 500 staff to manage and implement the vaccination program and are hiring about 300 extra part-time or full-time staff to cope with the situation. Leung said that everyone implementing the program would be qualified and trained, and that the scheme would be a quality-assured exercise.

With the increase of manpower, Controller of Centre for Health Protection Thomas Tsang said that the operation of the clinics and hospitals under the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority should remain unchanged with the same hours of operation. However, he said the situation may vary depending on the need.

"We encourage the target groups to receive the vaccination where they normally go for medical services," said Leung. The government expects that most target individuals will head to public clinics and hospitals for the vaccination during the first phase of the scheme.

The second phase of the program starts on December 28, when private doctors who have joined the human swine influenza vaccination subsidy scheme will have also received the vaccine.

Three of the five target groups, namely, chronically ill patients and pregnant women, children aged from six months to under six years and the elderly aged 65 and above, can opt to receive the vaccination from those private doctors. The government will subsidize them, providing HK$129, including HK$79 per dose for the vaccine cost and HK$50 for the injection fee.

Participating private doctors are also required to display logos of the scheme for easy recognition.

For the remaining two target groups, healthcare workers can receive vaccination from their serving medical institutions or Hospital Authority clinics, while workers in the swine industry can get free vaccinations from the Hospital Authority's designated clinics.

"Human swine flu cases continue to be found all over the world and the situation in Hong Kong may become more serious with the arrival of the winter influenza peak. People belonging to the target groups are urged to be vaccinated to reduce the chance of infection and to safeguard their health," said Leung.

"Although there are reports of feeling unwell after the human swine flu vaccination, so far, no abnormal reactions have been reported. Receiving the vaccination is still safe and members of the public should not be over-worried," he said.

The government believes that the first batch of 500,000 doses will be sufficient to meet the initial demand of the target groups. The remaining 2.5 million doses will arrive in January next year.

"People who are not in the target groups can choose to receive vaccinations from private clinics at their own expense after the second batch of vaccines arrives," said Leung.

(HK Edition 12/01/2009 page1)