There is a growing requirement throughout the world for governments and communities to provide a cleaner and more hygienic environment for people to live, raise families and to work. This prerequisite has become even more pressing with the discovery of new viruses, such as SARS, and the rise of other debilitating diseases. That's why the Hong Kong SAR Government, through the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, is continually improving its services to the public, whether it is by launching new measures to enhance food safety standards, reducing contacts between customers and live poultry, or expanding our efforts on the prevention and control of pests which pose a threat to public health.

Indeed, this latter problem was one that occupied a considerable amount of time and effort in 2004, particularly in relation to mosquito-borne diseases, such as Japanese encephalitis and dengue fever. Of great concern during the year was the report of five cases of Japanese encephalitis, resulting in one fatality. At one stage the average monthly ovitrap index, which measures the extensiveness of Aedes albopictus mosquitoes in Hong Kong, peaked at a very high level of 31.6 per cent in May.

With the surge in the index, the department stepped up its efforts to eradicate mosquito breeding grounds and increased surveillance through the use of ovitraps. Additional publicity was mounted to improve community participation in preventing the disease and arousing public awareness of the mosquito problem. As a result, no local transmission of dengue fever was reported.

A significant effort to minimise another threat to public health - the risk of human infection from avian influenza - is the implementation of an incentive scheme to reduce the number of live poultry stalls. Launched in July, the scheme is designed to encourage live poultry retailers to voluntarily surrender their fresh provision shop licences or terminate their stall tenancies in public markets for selling live poultry. By the end of 2004, some $50 million in ex-gratia payments had been made.

On the food safety front, the department enhanced its food surveillance programme by including some 500 additional food samples for testing each month. In another development, a voluntary code of practice was introduced for the import and sale of live coral fish. This followed a series of food poisoning cases associated with eating coral fish. We have also stepped up our enforcement action against unlicensed food premises and those operators breaching public health laws. In this respect, legislative amendments have given the department a quick and effective way to close unhygienic food premises which pose an immediate public health hazard.

We would not have been able to successfully perform our tasks during 2004 without the dedication and support of our entire staff, who worked tirelessly in helping to maintain Hong Kong's high standards of food and environmental hygiene. We will be calling on them to continue their efforts in the months and years ahead.

2005 promises to be a year in which the department will be given new powers to deal with on-going issues, including improving food safety and hygiene by requiring all food establishments to appoint a hygiene manager or hygiene supervisor. The crack down on mosquito-borne diseases will also be strengthened once legislative amendments have been passed to allow FEHD staff to take more effective control measures in the prevention of mosquito breeding.

These are just some of the measures we will be taking in the new year to help us realise our mission of working hand in hand with our community in building Hong Kong into Asia's world city - a city renowned for its food safety and public hygiene.

 

Gregory Leung
Director
Food and Environmental Hygiene Department