1997 h5n 1 avian influenza was first discovered in Hong Kong, which will be fatal to human beings.

In fact, as early as 1996, Guangdong Province was the first to find highly pathogenic H5N 1 avian influenza virus in geese raised in a farm. By April of the following year, a large number of live chickens were infected with the virus in Liufushan, Hong Kong. A month later, on the eve of Hong Kong's return to China, a three-year-old boy died after being infected with the virus, becoming the first human case of H5N 1 avian influenza infection in the world. However, at that time, the Department of Health could not find out the cause of death of the boy, so it had to send samples to the United States for testing. It wasn't until August that experts confirmed that bird flu had changed-H5N 1 virus, which used to spread only among birds, began to infect humans. 1 1 month, that is, more than four months after the establishment of the new government, children were infected again, so things became a big deal, and the public was shocked. A brand-new disease appeared in Hong Kong. The following month, the government announced the cases of avian influenza one after another, and even the live chickens on the market were found to be infected with the virus, which made the SAR government, which had just been hit by the first round of international speculators in the financial turmoil, face another challenge in an instant.

At first, the government tried to appease the public, and the Director of Health, Margaret Chan, even said, "I eat chicken every day" to show safety. However, the masses were not at ease, because a few days later, she overthrew the saying that it was safe to eat chicken and suddenly ordered the poultry wholesale market to close for three days (ten years later, Chen Fengfuzhen said that she did not regret saying this because it was a fact that she really ate chicken every day). At that time (1February 19), there were 10 people diagnosed or suspected to be infected with avian influenza in Hong Kong, including 2 dead people. Scholars at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) also warned that bird flu may mutate into international transmission. In addition, some patients have never been in contact with live birds and have never been to the market, but they are still caught. Under such circumstances, the public is inevitably a little worried. Only Tung Chee-hwa felt that such a thing was not worth making a fuss about, and publicly complained about the reporter's exaggeration. When the media revealed that the Secretary for Health and Welfare, Mrs Katherine Fok (the predecessor of Dr Yeoh Wing-kiong), had taken a big vacation and ignored the bird flu issue, the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Anson Chan, claimed that no one needed to resign for this matter to protect her subordinates. Both of them have aroused public criticism.

Finally, the government adopted the expert's advice and gradually upgraded the measures. First, stop importing live poultry from Chinese mainland on Christmas Eve (1February 24th). A few days later, officials even decided to slaughter all1300,000 live chickens raised in local farms, and extended the "chicken ban order" to the beginning of 1998, so that people could not slaughter live chickens during the Spring Festival. After more than a month, the bird flu finally came to an end. 18 people were confirmed to be infected, and 6 of them died.

Afterwards, WHO praised the chicken killing operation and the SAR Government for successfully stopping the spread of avian influenza. However, Hong Kong people question the ability of civil servants to handle affairs and accuse officials of lacking a sense of crisis. Margaret Chan was nicknamed "Chicken Treasure" for her remarks about eating chicken every day. Moreover, the embarrassment of front-line government personnel in killing chickens and the crime of killing chickens as an example have made people dissatisfied, which has laid a foundation for Tung Chee-hwa to switch to the accountability system for senior officials in the future (see Chapter 1 for details). It is worth noting that the bird flu war can be said to be a "drill" before SARS. In the meantime, the Department of Health should trace the relatives of patients, and officials should learn how to explain to the public and how to cooperate with experts after an unprecedented outbreak of infectious diseases. Unfortunately, the government has not fully absorbed this experience-Chen Fengfuzhen disagreed with Professor Yuan of the University of Hong Kong during the bird flu period, and she still refused to listen to Professor Yuan's advice during the SARS period; 1997, the public criticized officials for "lack of sense of crisis", while in 2003, people thought that the government was "slow" and the evaluation was no different; As for the Department of Health, it had the experience of tracking the relatives of patients during the outbreak of avian influenza. Only after repeatedly mentioning the relationship between Liu Jianlun and Jinghua Hotel during SARS did the Legislative Council name and criticize their tracking work in the investigation report. Of course, the scale of the outbreak of avian influenza cannot be compared with that of SARS. With so few people infected with avian flu, the people took it in stride and did not stop them from flocking to the cinema at Christmas, which made the movie Titanic set the highest box office record in Hong Kong's history. It is far from the scene of zero box office and street killing in SARS cinema. In any case, during the SARS period, royalists excused the Tung Chee-hwa government, saying that SARS was a new virus, and officials were inexperienced, so it was really hard to convince the public and forgetful.