Vigilance is our best defence against bird flu and it has been deployed wisely in shutting down the Bird Garden in Mong Kok after a sample taken by health inspectors was found to contain the virus. Only when the shops and cages have been cleansed, the birds checked and regulatory measures re-examined should the market be allowed to re-open.
Such steps are necessary, no matter what difficulty they cause to traders and disappointment to customers and tourists. The virus has re-emerged in the region with a vengeance with human deaths being announced this month by the mainland, Vietnam and Indonesia. There is a need to be on our guard, given that it has been foreshadowed by scientists as having the potential for causing a pandemic.
This does not mean that authorities here should cause undue alarm, though. Hong Kong's experience with H5N1 and Sars has given us solid grounding in dealing with infectious diseases and the policies that have subsequently been put in place stand us in good stead.
That approach is surveillance, surveillance and more surveillance. It is the reason why 17 wild birds have been found with H5N1 this year and for the positive test of the faeces sample from the Bird Garden.
We have learned that there is no room for the complacency that has meant the spread of H5N1 through Indonesia and its re-emergence in recent weeks in poultry in Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam. Culling infected birds, closing markets where the virus has been detected and cleansing the area, ensuring people handling birds maintain hygienic practices and keeping close watch on imports and wild bird populations have meant no new human infections here since H5N1 returned in 2003.
Suggestions that because of the threat from H5N1 the bird market should be closed permanently are, for now at least, unwarranted. Only if the birds are found to be spreading the virus should such consideration be given and then, only as a last resort; the garden is, after all, part of Hong Kong's culture and worthy of preservation.