1 week ago 86% of Hong Kong infants, toddlers still unvaccinated against flu: health expert

More than 85 per cent of Hong Kong infants and toddlers remain unvaccinated against flu, a leading respiratory disease expert has said, while warning of the approaching winter peak after more than 20 severe influenza cases were recorded among children, including two deaths. David Hui Shu-cheong, a professor of respiratory medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said on Sunday the summer flu peak was slowly receding and expected to bottom out by the end of November or the beginning of...

Science

1 week ago Broader virus protection urged as 86% of Hong Kong toddlers yet to get flu jabs

More than 85 per cent of Hong Kong infants and toddlers remain unvaccinated against the flu, as medical experts urge broader immunisation against respiratory viruses, citing a higher risk of co-infection among high-risk groups this winter. Experts on Sunday warned that if the summer flu peak extends and overlaps with the winter season, respiratory viruses could remain highly active for an extended period. They urged the public to get vaccinated against both influenza and respiratory syncytial...

Science

1 week ago Compassion in conflict: Hong Kong medics brave Gaza war to deliver critical care

Hong Kong doctor Ben Ng Siu-bun still remembers the horrors of war in conflict-torn Gaza. The 52-year-old anaesthesiologist joined a humanitarian mission organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross to Gaza in March this year, providing medical services to those who were injured or ill. During his six-week stay at a field hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza, Ng said about half of the patients sent there were suffering from gunshot or blast injuries. He recalled treating a 12-year-old...

Events

1 week ago Tech focus for doctors trained at new Hong Kong medical school, HKUST head says

Hong Kong’s new medical school will focus on training “future-embracing” doctors to adopt emerging technologies to treat patients, the head of its host university has said. Professor Nancy Ip Yuk-yu, president of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said on Saturday that HKUST would use its strength in research, especially in artificial intelligence (AI), to train future doctors. “AI will have a very important impact on healthcare and could bring another round of industrial...

Science

1 week ago Hong Kong Medical Council overturns decision to end inquiry into alleged blunder

Hong Kong’s embattled Medical Council has overturned its earlier decision to terminate an inquiry, delayed for 15 years, into a paediatrician accused of a blunder that left a mainland Chinese boy permanently disabled. The council decided on Saturday to revoke its previous ruling made on October 28 to permanently stay the proceedings of the disciplinary inquiry into Dr Sit Sou-chi following a 4½-hour review hearing. Council chairwoman Dr Grace Tang Wai-king announced the decision at the end of...

Politics

2 w. ago HKUST pledges to invest more than HK$7 billion into third medical school project

A Hong Kong university establishing the city’s third medical school has pledged to commit more than HK$7 billion (US$899 million) to the project and has already recruited six clinical professors, including a former head of an Australian institution. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) on Wednesday provided further details of its development plan, a day after the government revealed that the institution had been chosen to run the new medical school for its clear strategic...

Economics

2 w. ago What experts say Hong Kong’s new medical school must do to succeed

The new medical school set to be run by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) should ride on the institution’s unique technological strengths and catch up on clinical research to become a leading institution, experts and lawmakers have said. Their comments followed the government’s announcement on Tuesday that HKUST had emerged as the top choice to operate the city’s third medical school, taking its place alongside the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and the...

Science

2 w. ago What must Hong Kong’s new medical school focus on to succeed?

The new medical school set to be run by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) should ride on the institution’s unique technological strengths and expand its capacity in clinical research to become a leading institution, experts and lawmakers have said. Their comments followed the government’s announcement on Tuesday that HKUST had emerged as the top choice to operate the city’s third medical school, taking its place alongside the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and...

Politics

2 w. ago HKUST to run Hong Kong’s third medical school on ‘strategic’, ‘financial’ merits

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has won the bid to run the city’s third medical school, with officials saying the institution stood out by presenting a clear strategic position and financial plan, among other factors. The eight-month race officially ended on Tuesday, when the government announced that HKUST had been recommended by the Task Group on the New Medical School after it assessed proposals submitted in March by the institution, Baptist University, and...

Politics

2 w. ago Chikungunya may be spreading silently in Hong Kong, experts say after fourth case

Hong Kong may have silent chains of chikungunya fever transmission in the community, a leading infectious disease expert has warned, as authorities have yet to identify the source of the city’s fourth local case recorded last week. Joseph Tsang Kay-yan, co-chairman of the Hong Kong Medical Association’s advisory committee on communicable diseases, said on Monday that authorities should step up mosquito control, noting that cooler weather and declining cases in neighbouring Guangdong province...

Politics

2 w. ago Chikungunya may be spreading silently in Hong Kong, expert says after fourth case

Hong Kong may have silent transmission chains of chikungunya fever in the community, a leading infectious disease expert has warned, as authorities have yet to identify the source of the city’s fourth local case recorded last week. Joseph Tsang Kay-yan, co-chairman of the Hong Kong Medical Association’s advisory committee on communicable diseases, said on Monday that authorities should step up mosquito control, noting that cooler weather and declining cases in neighbouring Guangdong province...

Politics

2 w. ago Hong Kong’s flu season could extend into winter due to mutation: expert

Hong Kong’s current flu season, driven by a highly transmissible mutated virus strain and compounded by a cold snap, will be significantly prolonged and may overlap with the coming winter season, a leading infectious disease expert has said. David Hui Shu-cheong, a professor of respiratory medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, also said on Sunday that the city would have to study whether the flu could become perennial – the situation in Singapore – requiring the acquisition of...

Science

3 w. ago Hong Kong medical student gets 1 year probation for filming men in dorm showers

A medical student from Hong Kong’s top university has been sentenced to a year’s probation after admitting to secretly filming two hallmates while they were showering in a dormitory bathroom. Chung Chun-yu, 23, earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of voyeurism and told Principal Magistrate David Cheung Chi-wai that his act of using a mobile phone to film other students through a hole in a laundry basket at a University of Hong Kong hall in September last year was a one-off incident. The...

Politics

3 w. ago China’s top medical equipment maker Mindray applies to list in Hong Kong

China’s top medical equipment maker Mindray applies to list in Hong Kong  South China Morning Post

Science

3 w. ago University eyes Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis for nuclear medicine plant

Hong Kong’s oldest university plans to support the mass production of nuclear medicine in the city by setting up a production plant in the proposed Northern Metropolis megaproject to halve the cost as it aims to apply such treatment to more types of cancer. University of Hong Kong (HKU) researchers aim to develop a new form of nuclear medicine to treat nasopharyngeal cancer, which has one of the world’s highest incidence rates in southern China, after achieving initial success with two other...

Events

3 w. ago Hong Kong’s Medical Council under fire for closing second alleged blunder case

Hong Kong’s Medical Council is under mounting pressure to account for its disciplinary procedures after concerns were raised about its handling of a second alleged blunder, this time involving an endoscopy that left a patient in a vegetative state. The council is already under fire from authorities and the city’s ombudsman for its handling of an inquiry into another alleged blunder that left a child disabled for life. The latest allegations centred around the treatment of hospitalised patient...

Events

3 w. ago More than 1,000 daily inquiries for Hong Kong’s new medical fee waiver scheme

Hong Kong’s public hospitals have received more than 1,000 inquiries daily since applications for medical fee waivers opened last Monday, authorities have revealed. Chief Executive of the Hospital Authority, Dr Libby Lee Ha-yun, said in a television interview on Sunday that more than 100 applications had already been submitted, out of the additional 1.1 million people that will be made eligible for fee waivers under a reform of the public healthcare subsidy scheme taking effect on January 1,...

Politics