Regarding viral epidemic atypical pneumonia: 5 EAWF will be running as scheduled unless notification otherwise
 

Dear Contact Persons and friends,
 

We have received a number of enquiries regarding our scheduled forum   4-7 July 2003.
 

Background

According to the World Health Organisation press release on 2003 April 1:
 

WHO began recommending that persons travelling to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Guangdong Province, China consider postponing all but essential travel. This updated travel advice comes as a result of new developments, particularly in Hong Kong, in the multi-country outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

This temporary recommendation will be reassessed daily as the epidemic evolves. The recommendation does not apply to passengers simply transiting through airports in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region or Guangdong Province, China.

The new travel advisory is intended to limit the spread of SARS by reducing travel to high risk areas. All other elements of WHO previous travel guidance still stand.
 

According to the Hong Kong Government, WHO’s recommendation is understandable. What WHO has done is merely a confirmation of what has been happening. The local Government emphasised that Hong Kong was working hard to tackle atypical pneumonia and that the Government's actions were transparent and responsible.
 

According to the WHO, the recommendation will be reassessed daily.
 

5 EAWF will run as scheduled

As the Hong Kong Hosting Committee of 5 EAWF, taken into consideration of that WHO will reassess the recommendation daily and that we have a factual transparent Government on data released on this epidemic - we like to let you know that, up to date, we will run the 5 EAWF as scheduled in three months time, unless new developments occur which will be notified as soon as possible. We assure our friends that we will base our decision on community health safety and according to WHO's recommendations.
 

Steps to take

Although we have made the decision that all registration stands and are according to schedule, and in three months time, ‘the epidemic should be under control, a few steps will be/can be taken as precautions:

1. We, the hosting committee, will retain the registration fee of USD50 and accommodation booked and paid to us for reimbursement to the payee if there is a cancellation of the forum by us.
2. Please make sure that your commitment to any payment for local and air-travel or hotel bookings (if that applies) will be left to the latest deadline.
3. Whilst we do take out insurance for attendees whilst in the forum, with our limited budget, we are not insured for any further compensation, we urge our delegates to exercise an understanding of our financial situation as NGOs, and take up their own travel insurance or any local personal expenses IF there is any cancellation.
4. We will post on the website www.eawf.org a special statement denoting the date of scheduled forum and will change it accordingly:  statement: “5 EAWF will run as scheduled 4-7 July 2003 at HKUST Hong Kong “. Please notify us or your local Contact Persons if you are not accessible to our website.

Hong Kong Hosting Committee  5 EAWF