E.K. Yeoh, secretary for health, welfare and food of the Hong Kong government made the remarks at a press conference Thursday, just a day before the SARS Clinical Management Workshop commences.

"The knowledge obtained will help us improve our systems to tackle infectious diseases, provide speedy and appropriate care for patients and protect public health.

"This series of conferences and visits are part of the exercise to get lessons to be learnt from the handling of SARS both locallyand overseas," Yeoh said.

Tagged as the first of its kind, the SARS Clinical Management Workshop will be opened on June 13 by, Yeoh himself, and Mark Salter and Mike Ryan from the World Health Organization's (WHO) Office of Communicable Disease Surveillance at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.

During the workshop co-organized jointly by the Health, Welfareand Food Bureau of the Hong Kong government and the WHO, overseas delegates will share their experience with local delegates in three main areas: clinical presentation and progress of disease, treatment modalities and nosocomial infection and infection control, said a press release issued by the Information Services Department of the Hong Kong government.

Through the workshop, a consensus document will be developed onthe clinical management of SARS for presentation to the WHO GlobalConference on SARS to be held in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia on June 17 and 18, it said.

Over 120 clinicians and medical experts from the United States,United Kingdom, Canada, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, France, and Chinese mainland, China's Guangdong province and Hong Kong will take part in the workshop. WHO's representatives from the Head Office, Western Pacific Regional Office and its office in Beijing will also take part, it said.

The two-day workshop will be followed by a visit of WHO's Executive Director of Communicable Diseases David Heymann to Hong Kong on June 15 and 16, it said.

Heymann will share his experience with local dignitaries in a presentation on the SARS global outbreak at a welcome reception tobe hosted in his honor on June 15, the press release said.

On June 16, Heymann will see for himself anti-SARS measures being implemented in Hong Kong, including an introduction on the enhanced computer surveillance system specially developed to enable swift contact tracing of confirmed and suspected SARS patients.

Heymann will depart Hong Kong on June 16 for WHO's Global Conference on SARS in Malaysia.

Director-General of WHO, Gro Harlem Brundtland, will then pay aone-day visit to Hong Kong on June 19 following the WHO Global Conference, the press release said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2003)