Health authorities, public hospitals and private clinics in Hong Kong have decided to jointly collect and publicize avian flu information.

Department of Health's consultant on community medicine Thomas Tsang Ho-fai said this yesterday.

The aim is to provide timely information to all frontline medical practitioners and set up a system for both public hospital staff and private physicians to report new cases, Tsang told reporters at a government seminar.

Medical staff must report suspected cases of avian flu to the health authorities as the government steps up infection control measures, he said.

Ko Wing-man, the Hospital Authority's deputy director in charge of operations and public affairs, said a red-alert system will be implemented at government hospitals in the event of an avian flu outbreak in the territory.

The authority will declare a red alert at medical institutions and ban hospital visits if human transmission of avian flu is confirmed in Hong Kong or neighbouring regions.

On a separate occasion, Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong said the government has developed contingency measures to control the spread of avian flu in various outbreak scenarios, including a large-scale epidemic, and infections among human and bird populations.

Yeoh said the government will continue to consult the public on possible prevention measures, as the avian flu epidemic is expected to remain in the region for an extended period of time.

The public will also be consulted on measures for local poultry farms as the present stock of birds in local farms will only last two or three months. Yeoh added that hatch eggs currently come from the mainland and if "we don't bring in any live birds, the local stock will soon dry up".

(China Daily HK Edition February 10, 2004)