.contact us |.about us
News > National News...
Search:
    Advertisement
China alert against SARS comeback
( 2004-01-22 10:23) (Xinhua)

Surveillance and monitoring systems against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has gone into full gear as an estimated 1.89 billion people in China's mainland are travel around during the Spring Festival, which falls between Jan. 22 to 28.

Since south China's Guangdong Province reported three clinically confirmed SARS cases in December 2003 and January 2004.Beijing, one of the regions most seriously hit during last year's SARS outbreak, requires people whose body temperature exceeds 38 degrees to be sent to special "fever clinics" immediately.

Transport vehicles entering Beijing from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Taiwan will berth away from other vehicles at airports, railway stations and bus stations. Passengers from the above regions are required to take temperature examinations.

In addition, local medical institutions, police and quarantine departments are also mobilized to safeguard a SARS-free Spring Festival in the capital city.

Echoing Guangdong's recent move to cull civet cats, one of the most probable SARS virus carriers, Beijing also banned selling and eating of the animal, said Deng Xiaohong, vice director of Beijing Municipal Public Health Bureau.

Quarantine departments have tested the 600 civet cats in Beijing for the SARS virus and the results are negative, according to Deng.

In north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, another former SARS-hit area, authorities are also on guard.

Zhang Lianzhong, head of the Inner Mongolia Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said delayed isolation of 12 incoming SARS patients caused spreading of the disease in Inner Mongolia last spring and the mistake will not be repeated this year.

The fact that SARS reappeared in Guangdong will not necessarily lead to another round of SARS in Inner Mongolia, said Zhang, who considers his hometown well-prepared for any probable SARS comeback.

Compared to Beijing, Shanghai effectively controlled the disease quickly last year, and is trying to continue the success during this year's Spring Festival and in days to come.

At present, 160 local hospitals have started to report clinical respiratory and fever pneumonia cases daily to Shanghai¡¯s dynamic SARS surveillance system. Disease control and prevention centers at various levels have rehearsed SARS emergency procedures many times to ensure effective reaction to a reoccurrence of SARS.

Over 1,800 epidemiologists and 113 medical emergency teams are available at any time for a SARS case in Shanghai, according to the Shanghai Center of Disease Control and Prevention.

While government departments and medical workers are on alert against SARS, Chinese people's preparations for the Spring Festival have not been disturbed.

A survey of 2,815 households in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan and Shenzhen showed 40 percent of the surveyed families were not afraid of SARS comeback and 70 percent said they were well-prepared for another outbreak.

 
Close  
   
  Today's Top News   Top National News
   
+Premier pays surprise call on new year eve
( 2004-01-23)
+Senior banker calls for wider RMB band
( 2004-01-23)
+WHO praises China over SARS, adds word of caution
( 2004-01-23)
+Traffic accident kills 14 in Shanxi
( 2004-01-23)
+Orbital module of Shenzhou V keeps flying smoothly
( 2004-01-22)
+Premier pays surprise call on new year eve
( 2004-01-23)
+WHO praises China over SARS, adds word of caution
( 2004-01-23)
+Massif cracks in Gansu, no casualties caused
( 2004-01-23)
+Traffic accident kills 14 in Shanxi
( 2004-01-23)
+Danish PM greets China on Lunar New Year
( 2004-01-23)
   
  Go to Another Section  
     
 
 
     
  Article Tools  
     
   
     
  Related Articles  
     
 

+Third SARS patient fully recoveres, leaves hospital
2004-01-21

+SARS lesson: How to address crises
2004-01-20

+SARS vaccine enters testing
2004-01-19

+SARS, bird flu watch stepped up
2004-01-18

+WHO says SARS comes from animals
2004-01-18

+China confirms 2 more SARS cases, WHO cautions
2004-01-18

+China to step up SARS control in North China
2004-01-18

+China confirms two more SARS cases
2004-01-16

 
     
   
        .contact us |.about us
  Copyright By chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved