[Pepper]

HONG KONG - A three-level alert system has been proposed to warn Hong Kongers of the likelihood of a potentially devastating bird flu outbreak, the government revealed Tuesday.

At the highest level, the city’s political leader will take full control of the health service’s response.

The three levels -- “alert”, “serious” and “emergency” -- are proposed in a consultation paper put before legislators.

The mechanism will be triggered by health chiefs as soon as a highly pathogenic avian flu outbreak is detected.

The “serious” alert will be announced if the flu transfers to the local poultry population or is detected in humans.

The most extreme response will come into effect if the virus is found to have mutated into a form transmissible between humans.

Hong Kong was ravaged by the H5N1 avian flu in 1997 when it first mutated into a form lethal to humans, killing six people.

Since then the city has managed to keep infections at bay despite two huge outbreaks throughout Asia this year, which killed at least 32 people and led to the death or cull of 120 million poultry birds.

The WHO has warned that a global flu pandemic is imminent and that it could kill up to 100 million people.


http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2004/December/theworld_December195.xml&section=theworld&col=

[CanadaSue]

of how well control measures can work. Their response in 97 was seen by many - especially poultry interests - as overly draconian. Yet it worked. The poultry/human outbreaks were halted. Equally importantly, by removing as much virus as possible through culling & proper disposal, HK decreased the chances that an H5N1 hanging around could change.

Put it this way - rather than removing the 'salad bad' - humans & birds, HK got rid of the customers - the virus.

There 3 level alert system sounds good - not too complicated & the actions required for each are probably pretty clear cut. Let's not forget, they really had problems exposed during SARS & have certainly worked on remediation since. Those same fixes will apply to pandemic flu.

I'll check their website for specifics - they're usually pretty good about posting that sort of tuff.