The detection of the deadly H5N1 virus in samples taken from live chickens at a popular market is a chilling reminder that the threat posed by bird flu has never left Hong Kong. This is the first time the virus has been detected in a city wet market for five years, which suggests that safeguards put in place have been working well. But the return of the virus underlines the need for constant vigilance. And in one key respect, it also exposes our complacency.
Plans for central slaughtering - the only way, in the long term, to stop infections in wet markets - have still not been implemented. It has been 10 years since the idea was floated but although some progress has been made, the project has been delayed again and again. The necessary sense of urgency is lacking. The government has acted decisively in implementing swiftly other measures to combat infectious diseases. It has put in place effective hygiene, prevention and surveillance procedures. These have, no doubt, helped prevent any serious outbreak of bird flu in recent years, even though the virus has hit other parts of Asia severely.
The virus was detected in routine samples taken on Tuesday from the Po On Road Market in Sham Shui Po. As soon as the results were available yesterday morning, officials quickly shut down the market. People who bought chickens there before the announcement have been invited to call a hotline. The surveillance system has, arguably, worked effectively. Procedures already in place enabled officials to declare the market an infected area. But there is a need to check the effectiveness of vaccination and bio-security measures. Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Yat-ngok has rightly warned that a mass cull may be necessary if samples taken from another wet market suggest infection. Imports of chickens from the mainland, and the movement of locally raised chickens, have been suspended.
It is clear that the best way to stop the spread of bird flu is to separate people from live poultry. Yet customers today approach live-chicken stalls in wet markets in essentially the same way they did in 1997, when, in Hong Kong, bird flu first jumped the species barrier, killing six of 18 people infected. Customers are still able to inspect chickens physically. Few wet markets have installed the glass barriers recommended to separate clients from live poultry.
Dr Chow said yesterday that a central abattoir would not begin operating until 2011 or 2012 at the earliest. Previously, the deadline was 2009; before that, it was mid-2007. The repeated delays are not because the government lacks resources but because of opposition from the poultry trade and from lawmakers who represent it and people it employs. They are putting public health at risk. But public complacency is also a problem. Many people still insist on buying live chickens because of their supposed freshness, which is considered an essential part of Chinese culinary culture. That people consider taste more important than public health shows a woeful lack of awareness about the true dangers of a bird flu pandemic.
The government generally needs to be responsive to public demands. But there are times when it must act decisively in the public interest even if there is strong opposition. Central slaughtering should be introduced without further delay.