All photos credit Hong Kong’s CHP
# 7526
Among the scores of publications produced by Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection (CHP) each year is their semi-annual (Jan/July) glossy PDF magazine called the CHP Newsletter.
The latest edition (CHP newsletter Issue No.33 (July 2013) ( 6.02 MB)) features a cover story on tuberculosis, a feature article on Hypertension, and then spends considerable time looking at two recent CHP emergency drills –`Exercise Ruby’ which concerned a response to MERS-CoV and `Exercise Amber’ which tested their response to a novel flu outbreak.
Hong Kong was hit particularly hard by SARS in 2003. Between March 11th and June 6th of that year a total of 1750 cases were identified, and of those, 286 died. So Hong Kong authorities are exceptionally proactive when it comes to protecting the city from infectious disease threats.
A brief excerpt from the `Amber’ exercise follows:
The Exercise aimed at testing the response actions against the locally acquired ‘novel influenza infection’ (simulated) of a Hong Kong citizen, with emphasis on the escalation of the response level in accordance with the risk to the community. The scenario of the exercise was: ‘Emergency’ level response was activated in Hong Kong in times of a novel influenza that had been identified initially in overseas countries recently; 300 such local cases were found and 40 fatalities
were caused.
Another feature of this 16-page newsletter is a look at Hong Kong’s public health messaging on preventing the spread of H7N9.
Hand hygiene messages are ubiquitous in the city, appearing on billboards, the sides of busses, and in posters in shop windows.
PSAs (or what they call APIs – announcement of public interest) abound as well. Below is an excerpt from the article on how the CHP is leveraging social media and new technologies to get the message out.
Two Announcements of Public Interest (APIs) were re-launched for disseminating the health message to the public. The APIs are not only broadcast through electronic media, including television and radio, but
also through the video systems on MTR, buses, minibuses, and even government and commercial buildings.
In view of the rising popularity of smartphones and tablet PCs, CHEU has launched an animated version of the two posters on the Yahoo! Homepage in late April. Both animated ads were also shown on MTR’s digital panel network.
Moreover, health messages on avian influenza were disseminated through non-conventional channels such as newspapers’ mobile applications. With our extensive coverage via different channels, we hope the health messages can reach the members of public and raise their awareness of avian influenza.
Hong Kong’s CHP continues to impress with not only their extensive public health messaging, but with their proactive exercises and drills and their openness in discussing surveillance and testing with the public for all manner infectious disease threats.
Once can’t help but wonder how much further along the world would be in combating emerging infectious disease threats if all other public health agencies around the globe were even half this diligent and forthcoming.
