Beijing's health authorities are requiring districts and
counties to set up more outpatient clinics to provide rabies
vaccinations, and to raise public awareness of rabies
prevention.
The municipal health bureau also urged medical institutes to
transfer suspected rabies cases to You'an Hospital or Ditan
Hospital for diagnosis, treatment and quarantine.
The Chinese capital also wants districts and counties to track
animals that bite people and ensure the creatures are properly
disposed of.
Beijing currently has 45 outpatient clinics providing
inoculations against rabies. They are required to be open 24 hours
a day and make regular reports to local disease control and
prevention centres.
Although no permanent residents of Beijing have contracted
rabies, nine people who contracted rabies in other parts of the
country were brought to the city for treatment in local hospitals
before they died.
The disease has killed more than 2,000 people in other parts of
the country this year.
(China Daily October 28, 2006)