The Hong Kong government Friday welcomed the findings of an
independent investigation into the SARS outbreak at Amoy Gardens
conducted by an environmental health team of the World Health
Organization (WHO).
Speaking at a press conference, Deputy Director of Health Leung
Pak-yin said the HK government has noted that their findings
largely corroborated the earlier findings of the Hong Kong
investigation team.
"The fact that the WHO team reached similar conclusions through an
independent exercise has given us great confidence that we
understand the outbreak at Amoy Gardens. The WHO team has done an
excellent job," he said.
Leung noted that both the findings of the WHO and the Department of
Health indicated that the outbreak at Amoy Gardens was highly
likely to be caused by a combination of events.
Both investigation results pointed to the dry floor drain traps in
the bathrooms of individual apartments which had provided an open
connection to the soil stack through which contaminated droplets
were drawn into the bathrooms when the exhaust fans were turned
on.
The droplets could have been drawn into the light-well by the
powerful exhaust fans and re-entered into other apartments by
natural currents through open windows.
The WHO environmental health team was invited by the Director of
Health to conduct an independent and objective investigation into
the risk factors involved in the possible environmental
transmission of SARS in residential buildings in Hong Kong.
The team has been in Hong Kong for about three weeks and has now
completed its study. The team held a press conference Friday
morning to release the findings of the investigation.
The WHO environmental health team is headed by Heinz Feldmann, an
infectious disease specialist and virologist.
"The WHO team has conducted a thorough and comprehensive
investigation into the Amoy Gardens incident and we now hope the
residents of Amoy Gardens could resume their normal life," Leung
said.
The WHO's findings highlight the need for apartment owners and
managers to be aware of the possibility of an open connection
between the sewerage system and the bathroom floor drains and to
ensure that the latter is either sealed if not in use or fully
charged with water.
The WHO Team has observed that the occurrence of a major outbreak
similar to Amoy Gardens will likely be slim since this would
require an unusual combination of environmental and health events
all happening simultaneously.
(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2003)
