The Public Health Group of the SARS Expert Committee got an overview of the Hong Kong outbreak in meetings with government and Hospital Authority officials Monday.
During their first day in the five days of work in Hong Kong, the group met Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Carrie Yau and was briefed by Hospital Authority Chief Executive William Ho on the management of SARS in public hospitals.
The group also met Director of Health Dr Margaret Chan to learnabout health control measures implemented during the outbreak and the department's contact tracing work.
Group chairman Professor Sian Griffiths, president of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the UK's Royal Colleges of Physicians, said they will learn lessons through listening, and make recommendations for future emergent diseases.
"It is very much about listening, learning some lessons and helping our colleagues in Hong Kong," she said, adding that there are also lessons for the international community to learn for the future.
The SARS Expert Committee, comprising the Public Health Group and the Management and Executive Group, was set up in May. The Committee's 12 members were all appointed by Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa.
(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2003)
