What a whirlwind 72 hours it’s been. On Saturday afternoon I flew 9 hours from Brisbane, Australia up to Hong Kong to attend the 3rd International Infection Control Conference. The conference is hosted annually by the Hong Kong Infection Control Nurses’ Association and every year the speaker line-up gets more and more impressive. This year there were several global and local experts presenting. Key highlights were presentations from Professor Wing Hong Seto, Ms Patricia Ching, Dr Marty Favero, Ms Patricia Lynch, Dr Bill Jarvis, Ms Barbara Soule and Dr Didier Pittet. Alone each of these speakers is a drawcard, collectively they make it impossible to not want to attend. More information about this conference can be found at www.mvdmc.com/icna2008 Of course the scientific content alone would be attraction enough; add into the mix the opportunity to network and be reconnected to old friends and colleagues and you have the South East Asian Regional highlight. I was thrilled to catch up with friends from Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, the Philippines and even a few ex-patriot Australians enjoying career development in the Region.
Hong Kong is an amazing place. It’s political and cultural history is interesting and its infection prevention history even more compelling. Each time I’ve flown in during the past five years I’m drawn back to my memories of April 2003 when I transited through Hong Kong enroute to Macau where I consulted to the Macanese government at the height of the SARS epidemic. Hong Kong much like Singapore was like a ghost town during the SARS outbreak. The usually jam packed streets were empty or if not empty playing host to just the occasional mask-wearing local furtively avoiding any contact with humans.
SARS impacted the South East Asian economy unlike any other phenomena yet it also lead to growth and development. Certainly the country’s infection prevention capacity increased rapidly and that rapid growth appears to have been sustainable in these past five years. There is much that those of us in countries with well-developed and mature systems of infection prevention could learn from the resilience and innovation of our partners in this Region.
One of the most outstanding aspects of post-SARS Hong Kong has been the development of community awareness regarding transmission of infectious diseases and the importance of simple protective measures such as hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette. It’s difficult to describe how this has evolved and perhaps the picture at the top of this page from a Starbucks store at a large Hong Kong mall speaks a 1000 words. How fantastic that the people of Hong Kong expect to be able to sanitise their hands before their “Grande Venti Decaf Skinny Mocha Frappucinos – hold the whipped cream”
Safe travels, broad thinking, better hand hygiene and great coffee to you all from Hong Kong!
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on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 8:55 pm and is filed under Great Things, International Activity.
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