Press Release

DH updates Ebola-affected areas

19 January 2015

The Department of Health (DH) today (January 19) updated the list of affected areas in the local reporting criteria for Ebola virus disease in response to the World Health Organization (WHO) which declared the end of Ebola outbreak in Mali yesterday (January 18).

According to the WHO's recommendations, the end of an Ebola outbreak in a country can be declared once 42 days, twice the maximum incubation period (21 days), have passed since the last day any person had contact with an Ebola case and no additional cases have been detected.

"Locally, doctors should however pay attention to patients who travelled to Mali on or before January 18 who develop compatible symptoms within 21 days as they still meet the reporting criteria and are also statutorily required to be promptly notified to the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the DH," a spokesman for the DH said.

The DH again urged the public to avoid unnecessary travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Updated travel advice has been uploaded to the front page of the CHP (This link will open in a new windowwww.chp.gov.hk/en), the DH's Travel Health Service (This link will open in a new windowwww.travelhealth.gov.hk/eindex.html) and the Outbound Travel Alert of the Security Bureau (This link will open in a new windowwww.sb.gov.hk/eng/ota).

"We will issue letters to doctors and hospitals on the updated affected areas and revised reporting criteria," the spokesman added.