| Interviewee details |
|
Interviewee
|
Dr Ko Wing Man
|
|
Job title during SARS
|
Acting Chief Executive of the Hospital Authority (HA)
|
|
Appointment held at time of interview
|
Secretary for Food and Health, Hong Kong SAR Government
|
|
Language / Dialect
|
Cantonese
|
Summary of interview
With the outbreak of a new infectious disease in Guangdong by the end of 2002, Dr. Ko as Director of the HA Division responsible for infection control had already established a survey mechanism for atypical pneumonia in HK. On 10th March, he first became aware of the outbreak in HK when several staff at Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH) fell ill. The outbreak spread rapidly to other countries and WHO on 15th March issued a global alert about the new infectious disease called “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome” (SARS). When the HA Chief Executive (CE), Dr. William Ho became infected with SARS, Dr. Ko was appointed Acting CE and remained at this post during the outbreak. He had to make many difficult decisions, such as whether to close the A&E services at PWH, implement the policy of no visiting in HA hospitals, the level of protective equipment appropriate for use by frontline staff, deployment of staff to SARS wards, whether to designate one SARS hospital following the massive outbreak at Amoy Gardens, etc. Deficiencies in the system were explored and improvement measures implemented were explained. Dr. Ko also stressed on the importance of prevention of emerging infectious diseases, extending to the contact between humans and other animal species, especially those kept in abnormal caged conditions. Lessons learnt and memorable moments experienced were shared and Dr. Ko expressed his appreciation for the united dedicated professional efforts of all staff at HA to fight the SARS outbreak.
