Hong Kong Today←→Public Health

    On the one hand, promoting concerns about public health can boost Hong Kong people s quality of life and lower the risk of outbreaks of epidemics. On the other hand, an over-emphasis of public health and insufficient planning in its implementation might harm the basic human rights of some individuals. For example, the quarantine policy in hospitals during the SARS outbreak separated dying patients from their family members. Besides, public health policies mainly based on western medicine and technology sciences may cause certain traditional elements of Hong Kong culture, such as Chinese medicine and folk herbal practices, to disappear. If the concept of public health that is based on modern western medical technology is re-examined in conjunction with concepts such as multiculturalism, social justice, human rights, and collective memories, students' horizons will be broadened and they can then genuinely think about public health from multiple perspectives.

This learning and teaching resource is provided by by Kwan Fong Cultural Research and Development Programme, Lingnan University.