Pediatrician Alfred Tam (left) gives nasal-spray influenza vaccine to a girl at a press conference Tuesday in Hong Kong. Fu Lei / China Daily

Are Hongkongers becoming indifferent to their children's health and well-being? Or are they just ignorant of the dangers flu can cause? A recent study that says about 70 percent of parents in Hong Kong have not taken their wards to flu vaccination clinics in the past 12 months backs the notion.

A matter of profound concern indeed, for about 50 percent parents have admitted that their children were afflicted with flu some time during the past 12 months.

The truth was revealed Tuesday thanks to a survey conducted by an association formed by medical professionals, advocating vaccination to prevent flu.

The League of Health Professionals disclosed the findings of the survey just before the government's five-month subsidy vaccination program for the city's children kicks off next month.

The survey was conducted during the past two months by appointment by the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Nearly half of 881 parents interviewed reported that their children had been hit by flu.

One out of five of their children had to take no less than five days of sick leave from school.

"The parents were mentally and physically affected when their children were down with flu," said Scarlett Pong, chairman of the league.

Among the working parents whose children had been affected during the surveyed period, over 40 percent had to take leave from work and stay home to attend to their ailing children - three days on an average.

One third of the parents reported cross infections.

Despite the attached fear factor of flu, nearly 70 percent of the parents did not take their children for vaccination, of which 45 percent simply refused for fear of side-effects.

Annual influenza epidemics attack from 5 to 15 percent of the population, causing about three to five million cases worldwide, killing 250,000 to 500,000, mostly elders, according to the World Health Organization.

Hong Kong government will launch the Childhood Influenza Vaccination Subsidy Scheme next month, a program that was introduced in 2008, to subsidize HK$80 per dose for Hong Kong children aged between six months to six years who receive influenza vaccination from private doctors.

The program will continue till March, covering the "peak season" of the disease that normally breaks out in early spring. The Centre for Health Protection of Hong Kong government has reported significant outbreaks in last March and September.

Thomas Tsang, director of the center, said last Saturday that the number of vaccine receivers had increased thanks to the subsidy program, which saw 70,000 children and 130,000 senior citizens had vaccination last year.

Alfred Tam, a pediatrician, said a nasal-spray vaccine can be found in Hong Kong markets. The vaccine, approved by the FDA in the United States in 2003, was registered last September in Hong Kong, according to Pong.

The nasal-spray vaccine, which is currently provided through a sole pharmaceutical company globally, can be administered to those aged between two and 49, except pregnant women.

"It is an ideal choice for those who dread the 'pain' of injection," said Tam.

China Daily

(HK Edition 10/27/2010 page1)