Bulletin No. 1, 2013

News in Brief   61  APAIE Conference and Exhibition O v e r 1, 20 0 e x p e r t s i n education from 46 countries a n d r e g i o n s a t t e n d e d t he Ei ght h A s ia - Pac i f i c Association for International E d u c a t i o n ( A P A I E ) Conference and Exhibition hosted by CUHK in March at the A siaWorld - E xpo, the largest international education conference held in the region. Officiating at the opening ceremony were Prof. Gordon W.H. Cheung, APAIE President and Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor of CUHK; and Prof. Joseph J.Y. Sung, Vice-Chancellor of CUHK. Professor Sung delivered a keynote speech on the impact and lessons brought by SARS to Asia. Another keynote speaker, Madam Zhang Xiuqin, director general of the Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges, Ministry of Education, spoke on the development and globalization of higher education in China. Some 50 parallel sessions and over 150 exhibition booths from different institutions were set up to showcase the world’s higher education landscape. SARS a Decade On: A Conference for the Health Professionals The Stanley Ho Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine, jointly organized ‘SARS a Decade On: A Conference for the Health Professionals’ in March to review the SARS experience and what the world has learnt from it. Close to 20 renowned speakers from Hong Kong, mainland China, Canada, Singapore, the UK, and the World Health Organization (WHO), who were involved in the battle against SARS in 2003, shared experiences and views on various challenging aspects. Topics discussed included challenges in public health and policy during the epidemic and SARS’s positive impact on the global prevention of infectious diseases; the emergence and therapy of SARS from the clinical and virological perspectives; and its crisis management. A personal sharing session was also arranged. Mr. Patrick Huen, elderly patient; Prof. Henry L.Y. Chan, doctor; and Dr. Fung Hong, cluster chief executive, New Territories East Cluster, Hospital Authority, shared their experience of being infected, reflections upon recovery and changes in their lives. The outbreak of SARS 10 years ago has raised public consciousness o f t h e i mp o r t a n c e o f prevention. It also opened up new perspectives for the development of public health. Intellectual Cross-currents