Health Bureau organizes “Workshop on the Public Health Emergency Plan (PHEP) in Aviation”

The “Workshop on the Public Health Emergency Plan (PHEP) in Aviation” is going to be held on June 13th in Macao. This workshop is made under the cooperation by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and World Health Organization (WHO), Health Bureau Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) as the region host and Macao Civil Aviation Authority as co-host. The objectives of the workshop is to, referring to International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005), make critical review of Airport PHE Plan in relation to the spread of communicable diseases by air travelling; and make revisions to the PHE plan on Pandemic preparedness and logistic supports for the surveillance program and the control of hazards – hygiene and sanitation, water, food and pest control. There are 5 representatives coming from WHO and ICAO and more than 80 representatives from different countries and regions participated in this workshop. With experience in knowing the fast dissemination of diseases by air travelling in the globe such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, Bird Flu in 2005, and Influenza A H1N1 this year, Health Bureau Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) needs to enforce on the ability to make PHEP in aviation and set surveillance and control measures on points of entry in ports. The expected outcome for this workshop is to smoothen the information flow and exchange of disease notification from experts coming different countries or regions, so that guidelines could be drafted and set in harmonization with IHR (2005). There are more than 80 participants coming from 18 countries such as: China, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, USA, Ireland, India, Cambodia, Indonesia, New Zealand, East Timor, Brunei Darussalam and other countries. They are representatives coming from the Traffic Department, Civil Aviation Authority, Health Department, Airport and Air-travelling enterprises of these 18 countries.