The Centre for Health Protection is an agency under the Department of Health in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

responsible for disease prevention and control. CHP plays the same role and function as the

Centers for Disease Control The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and is headquartered in Atlanta, ...

in the United States, and the

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is an agency of the European Union (EU) whose mission is to strengthen Europe's defences against infectious diseases. It covers a wide spectrum of activities, such as: surveillance, e ...

in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

(EU).

History

Hong Kong was severely affected by the 2003 outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), with 299 people killed by the disease. The health system's performance in the face of the epidemic was scrutinised, and there were calls for an independent investigation. On 14 May 2003, Michael Mak, representative of the Health Services constituency, initiated a non-binding motion within the

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

's health services panel calling for the setting-up of a select committee to investigate government officials and Hospital Authority executives. Mak commented that the SARS outbreak had uncovered "administrative and policy weaknesses", and stated, "I hope that when a similar outbreak happens in the future, we will not find ourselves in such a mess again." The motion passed unanimously, as all but one of the pro-government legislators had walked out, calling it a "witch-hunting exercise". On 15 May 2003, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa launched a government-led investigation, ordering the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food to appoint a review committee comprising local and overseas experts. The membership of the SARS Expert Committee was announced on 28 May 2003. Committee co-chairs Sir Cyril Chantler and Sian Griffiths submitted the panel's final report to the government on 2 October 2003. One of the recommendations in the report was the setting up of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP), to be charged with communicable disease control, surveillance, planning for epidemics, and co-ordination during outbreaks. This suggestion was welcomed by Hong Kong medical experts. Deputy health director Leung Pak-yin became the first controller of the CHP on 1 April 2004. The initial operations of the centre were supported by a HK$500 million donation from the Hong Kong Jockey Club. The centre officially commenced operation on 1 June 2004.

Structure

The centre has seven divisions: * Communicable Disease Branch * Emergency Response and Programme Management Branch * Health Promotion Branch * Infection Control Branch * Non-communicable Disease Branch * Public Health Laboratory Services Branch * Public Health Services Branch

Controller

The CHP is headed by the Controller for the Centre for Health Protection and reports to the Director of the Department of Health.

Functions

CHP deals with various health-related issues including: * Emergency response *

Epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...

* Infection control *

Public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

References

External links