案例描述

With Autumn closing in authorities in Macau have began a seasonal flu vaccination campaign.

But if a new pandemic were to break out this season governments would have less room to maneuver after the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic was more mild than expected, said Hong Kong University Pasteur Research Centre scientific director Malik Peiris.

"I can't imagine many governments sticking their head out," he admitted during a workshop on disaster preparedness and influenza organised by Voice of America.

In 2009 cases of a new strain of H1N1 influenza appear in Mexico, at first with an alarmingly high mortality rate. “Our luck was that the group under major risk, the elderly, still had immunity from similar strains of previous pandemics,” said Perris.

Things could have been much worse, he added, as over 45 percent of Hong Kong children up to 12-years-old were infected at one point, five months after the first case was reported.

But in the end public opinion turned against authorities, claiming there was overreaction and overspending in the response to the pandemic.

For instance, Macau spend over MOP 40 million in 700,000 H1N1 vaccines but only 116,000 were used, amidst fears of side-effects.

“But I remember during the SARS outbreak authorities were accused of taking too long to respond. Sometimes it feels like we are doomed if we do, doomed if we don't,” he bemoaned.

Sri Lanka-born he played a key role in understanding severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003.

Vítor Quintã