Health Bureau (SSM) officials announced during a routine meeting on Thursday that the myopia rate among local school children has reached 29 percent.
According to an SSM statement on Friday, the bureau held the third meeting of its 7th Term of the Medical Affairs Council on Thursday, chaired by Health Bureau Director Alvis Lo Iek Long.
The meeting, the statement said, shared President Xi Jinping’s speech at the National Meeting on Health and exchanged views on how to implement its guidelines in light of Macau’s actual situation and medical work.
In the statement, Dr Lo emphasised that the council serves as an important platform for exchange within Macau’s medical sector. He expressed hope that council members, through shared learning and in-depth discussions on President Xi’s speech, would consider how to put these principles into practice in their daily medical services and professional work. In this way, they can pool the strength of the medical sector to jointly promote the development of Macau’s healthcare services and contribute to the building of a “Healthy China”, according to Dr Lo.
The council’s Vice-Chairman Lai Kai Seng recommended that the bureau continue to push the “gateway” of health further into the community and into families. He urged the government to optimise public-private collaboration, tiered diagnosis and treatment, and referral and triage arrangements. Furthermore, he highlighted the importance of deepening medical exchanges within the Greater Bay Area (GBA), promoting innovation in traditional Chinese medicine, and improving the mechanism for the mutual recognition of laboratory and examination results – integrating these concepts into daily medical services and professional practice.
Additionally, SSM officials reported on the achievements of the Student Health Care Programme. The participating council members also discussed and offered suggestions on revising the regulations concerning advertising for professional activities under the “Code of Ethics for Health Professionals”.
In the 2025–2026 academic year, the statement said, the Student Health Care Programme covered 97 school sections, with over 49,000 students taking part – a participation rate of 94 percent. The data showed that the myopia rate among students stood at 29 percent (only 1.8 percent in Kindergarten Grade 1, but rising to over 60 percent by Primary Grade 6); the rate of overweight and obesity was 13.5 percent; and more than 40 percent of Primary Grade 3 and Primary Grade 5 students were suspected of having dental caries.
To further enhance the service experience, the 2026–2027 academic year will see the rollout of electronic health summaries, allowing parents to view and download relevant information via the “Macao One Account”, the statement noted.
Council members attending the meeting affirmed the programme’s achievements and put forward suggestions regarding student health tracking records, precise data integration, mental health, and health education and publicity, jointly exploring ways to further safeguard students’ health, the statement said.
This unlocated photo provided by the Health Bureau (SSM) on Friday shows its director-cum-Medical Affairs Council Chairman Alvis Lo Iek Long (centre) chairing the council’s third meeting on Thursday.
