Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao and the Ministry of Health will stage a joint drill in November to rehearse a coordinated response to an epidemic attack.

This was revealed by Director of Health Lam Ping-yan as he attended yesterday the sixth meeting of epidemic prevention experts from the three places. The meeting, which started yesterday in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, will end today.

Lam said that since the threat of avian flu against China still existed, the meeting would decide on a list of more than 10 experts to be invited to form an expert group with the aim of stepping up communication among the three places and speeding up mutual notification once an epidemic broke out.

Lam pointed out that the quick response from health experts in the three places after the emergence of cases of human infection of avian flu in Guangdong early this year had indicated a good communication mechanism among them.

He hoped that this meeting could achieve breakthroughs in tripartite cooperation over urgent public health issues with a view to minimizing the impact of avian flu.

He also said that Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macao together with the Ministry of Health would stage a drill in November to practise combating an epidemic attack with coordinated efforts among them.

Speaking at the meeting, Director of Guangdong Health Bureau Yao Zhibin said that avian flu attacks on the province early this year had been brought under control thanks to cooperation from the two SARs. The situation had stabilized, but more collaboration among the three places in responding to and preventing such crisis would still be significant.

The three places had also successfully contained the SARS epidemic in 2003 through cooperation, Yao said. He hoped the meeting this time could strengthen the preventive mechanism in coping with public health emergencies and result in the signing of an agreement.

Editor: Yan