Press Release

Transcript of Dr Leung Pak-yin and Dr Ko Wing-man

March 22, 2003

Following is the transcript (English portion) of a stand-up briefing by the Deputy Director of Health, Dr Leung Pak-yin, and the Director (Professional Services and Public Affairs) of the Hospital Authority, Dr Ko Wing-man, on the latest situation of atypical pneumonia this (March 22) afternoon:

I'd like to report an update on the numbers of cases who have been admitted to hospital under observation and those who have been diagnosed to have suffered from atypical pneumonia in our hospitals up to this moment. Up to today, there has been a total of 97 healthcare workers who have been admitted to hospitals under observation and out of this 97 there are a total of 94 healthcare workers who have been diagnosed to have atypical pneumonia. Among these healthcare workers, two of them have already been discharged. For the medical students, the numbers have not changed. Of the 17 medical students who have been diagnosed to have atypical pneumonia, one has been discharged.

For the other patients and their relatives or contacts, there has been a total of 108 patients who have been admitted under observation and out of this, 106 have been diagnosed to have atypical pneumonia. And out of these 106 patients, four of them have been discharged.

Therefore the total number of patients who have been admitted to hospitals under observation up to now would be 222. And of these, a total of 217 have been diagnosed to have atypical pneumonia. And of these 217, seven of them have been discharged. This means that as of today, a total of 210 patients remain in hospital under treatment for atypical pneumonia.

I would also like to update you on the fact that one patient has passed away since yesterday. This patient was also from the Prince of Wales Hospital. He was an elderly gentleman with a blood disease and therefore whether the atypical pneumonia accounted for his death remains to be investigated.

As of today, the figure for intensive care remains unchanged. There are 38 patients under treatment in our intensive care units for atypical pneumonia. The condition of some of the patients has improved and they have been moved out of the intensive care unit and an equal number of patients have been moved into the intensive care unit.

.... yesterday was 197.

It should be 19 additional. My calculation is 19.

students?

We are talking about the school children. Today, we still got the five children that is the same number as yesterday. Two of them are in the ICU and their conditions are serious.

Still nine cluster nine patients?

You are right about the number of clusters. It remains the same.

Most of the patients in that category are from the cluster of Prince of Wales Hospital either are the relatives of residents or family contacts. Of course, there are still some sporadic individual cases under classification. We just received them and made diagnosis of atypical pneumonia. We still need to investigate to see whether there are any actual relationships with the Prince of Wales Hospital cluster or other hospitals.

.... [Inaudible] ....Well, you mentioned a couple of doctors in urban districts. Can you specify which?

Apparently there are a number of clusters of cases. And some of them have already been linked up through an earlier investigation by the Department of Health, which we all know. But there remains still a few clusters which by superficial evidence we can still not link them up. But there is emerging certain evidence, which of course we have to trace. That could eventually lead to our ability to link up further clusters to the original clusters. That's what we are talking about.

I understand that. What districts?

I think the details we can clarify later on. Earlier on we have been talking about one general practitioner in Mongkok area. We have also been talking about healthcare workers from two hospitals, one on Hong Kong Island, one in Kowloon.

[Inaudible]

As far as new patients under observation, the difference is 19. But as far as the number of pneumonia cases confirmed so far, the difference is 20. You will appreciate that there is a difference between them. Because there will be a slightly greater number of patients who we admitted suspecting that they might have pneumonia, but the majority of them we later on confirmed that they do have pneumonia.

As of today ... Because they are originating from one source, you can either call them one cluster or four. ... they emanate from four different index patients. But it is only after the detective work that the Department of Health has done early on that we have been able to link them together. And we want to keep an accumulative picture, so that you will know the total number of patients and that is why it may have caused you some confusion.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)