The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
 
     In view of the recent outbreak of the Ebola virus disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Central Committee on Infectious Disease and Emergency Responses of the Hospital Authority (HA) today (July 19) convened an ad hoc meeting, which was joined by representatives from the Centre for Health Protection (CHP), to discuss the risk assessment and preparedness of public hospitals. It was agreed that the following key measures will be implemented for early detection, isolation and diagnosis of possible cases to mitigate the risk of the virus being spread in Hong Kong.
 

• HA will enhance the monitoring and reporting of symptomatic patients, who have a travel history to the DRC in the past three weeks.
• The concerned patients will be transferred to the HA Infectious Disease Centre for isolation and arrangement of clinical tests at the Public Health Laboratory Services Branch of the CHP, from which the test result will be available in a few hours.
• Frontline staff will be reminded of the appropriate infection control measures and personal protection equipment on the designated intranet website and news bulletins.

     HA will continue to closely collaborate with the CHP to monitor developments and keep the general public and professionals posted on the most updated situation and relevant information. The enhanced measures will be reviewed at appropriate times.

Ends/Friday, July 19, 2019
Issued at HKT 15:40

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