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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.
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