Found a new case of SARS? Report no later than two hours if you are a doctor working in a city, or six hours if you work in a village.

This is how Guangdong, a south China province which had been stricken hard by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), is preparing to fight a possible return of the flu-like epidemic disease.

Drills will be conducted across the province before the end of the month to examine the unified command system, emergent epidemic information report system, disease prevention and control system, and capacity of the emergent treatment system.

Guangdong has put into effect two schemes designed to oversee, prevent and treat SARS.

All areas in the province must designate hospitals to watch over patients with respiratory problems and fever, and those who suffer from pneumonia.

Places that have already been affected by SARS must set up facilities to register people's temperature.

By the end of October, all cities and counties should have finished building or renovating fever clinics and hospitals designated to treat SARS patients.

The schemes put special emphasis on rural areas, hospitals, schools and the floating population, asking schools and kindergartens to resume morning temperature checking as soon as there is an epidemic report.

Doctors should report to local disease prevention and control organs within two hours if they receive a suspected SARS patient in a city, or within six hours if in a rural place.

The provincial government has asked all local medical authorities to strengthen prevention and control of influenza, which has similar symptoms to SARS. Medical workers should receiveflu vaccinations. Elderly people and children may also be vaccinated if they wish.

Days after Singapore reported a new case of SARS, over 800 medical experts from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao convened over the weekend in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, to share their perceptions on the epidemic, which had swept the world in the first half of this year, sickening over 8,400 people and killing over 900.

People might possibly face an attack of the disease this autumnor next spring, and governments should be well prepared for its possible reappearance, according to the scientists attending the symposium.

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