Our Fellowship Chairman
PP Paul Young and our
Sergeant-at-Arms Rtn.
Tobias Doeringer
were honoured
for their
efforts and
contributions
to
the Rotary Club.
Besides, we
sang a birthday song and
presented
a gift for Sam Nariman
as he is
Birthday boy of
July.
Our
President
Mr. Bernie
Ting
thanked those involved
in doing the
hard work
for the
Joint Annual Ball on 12th
July.
He further announced
that
there
will a
Board meeting
at about 2:00pm
after the
lunch meeting
on
31st July 03
Dr Lam from Queen Mary
Hospital
was our
guest
speaker;
his topic was “The
Burden of Respiratory
Diseases in Hong Kong”.
During the buffet
dinner, we had already
started the first round
question and answer
section before Dr. Lam
presumed to start his
talk after dinner
because our Rotarians
were very interested in
the issues of the SARS.
According to what Dr Lam
said, the SARS cases
were aggregated in
hospitals and Amoy
Garden because this
disease was found to be
not spread by air. Due
to the lack of
information about this
diseases and the
immature development of
medications, the death
rate was relatively
high. After the
outbreaks of the SARS,
the Government decided
to build isolated rooms
for patients in the
hospitals in order to
control the spread of
disease.
After a long question
and answer section, Dr
Lam thanked our club for
donating the anti-SARS
materials (e.g. masks)
to the students before
he started his talk.
During his talk, he
said, ‘In Hong Kong
there are four common
respiratory illness,
namely, asthma, lung
cancer, pneumonia and
tuberculosis. Asthma is
very common in Hong
Kong, especially for the
teenagers (12% of the
children suffer from
asthma). The irritants
making local people
allergic include
cockroach, cat’s fur and
house dust mite. Asthma
kills 80 to 100 people
every year, one-third of
them are children.
Fortunately, the present
advanced technology had
introduced some new
drugs, making the
patients more
comfortable’.
He also stated, ‘Lung
cancer, a very common
cancer in Hong Kong, is
closely related to
smoking. Usually 85% of
the patients are at the
advanced stage when they
discovered that they are
suffering from lung
cancer. We have 20,000
pneumonia cases every
year in which 2,500
cases will die; the
death rate is similar to
the SARS. Pneumonia has
a long history. Patient
will have high fever and
high white cell count,
while non-typical
pneumonia will cause
headache and muscle
ache’.
Tuberculosis still
exists in the local
community. The
notification in 1950 was
700 per 100,000 people.
Because of the
effectiveness of the
drugs, it drops to 100
now. When compared with
the USA and Japan (the
notification in these
countries
only ranged from 10 to
50), the figure is still
high in Hong Kong
because of the crowded
environment and poor
hygiene (people still
spit). Although 99% of
patients can be cured
after 2 weeks’ medical
treatment, they still
need to take drugs for
the following 3 to 6
months.’
Dr. Lam further says,
‘Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Syndrome (OSAS) is a
common illness for fat
people. OSAS patients
will snore and easy to
fall asleep during
daytime
(dangerous for them to
drive!). If people
suspect they have this
illness, they can
perform sleeping test in
the hospital to monitor
their breath and
airflow. In the USA, 4%
people of age-group
30-60 years old are
suffering from OSAS.
Among all the patients,
the number of females is
just half of the number
of males. Luckily
losing body weight even
though no drugs are
found to be effective in
curing this illness can
cure the OSAS.
