Chinese Ministry of Health gave a press conference on the progress
of SARS control in China April 10. Vice Minister of Health Ma
Xiaowei, Director of Guangzhou Respiratory Diseases Institute Zhong
Nanshan, Director of the Disease Control Department of Health
Ministry Qi Xiaoqiu, and Director of the Chinese Center for Disease
Control and Prevention Li Liming met the press. The following is a
transcript of the questions and answers translated by China.org.cn:
Question: First, about the number of SARS (atypical
pneumonia) cases: could you give us a daily report of newly found
cases in each province every day? Could you give us names of
relevant officials from public health bureaus and tell us who is
responsible for the accuracy of the numbers we get? And third
question: we have got a different number of SARS cases in Beijing
from a PLA hospital compared with the number released by the
Ministry of Health how do you explain the difference?
Ma Xiaowei: We have decided to include the report on China's
SARS situation and treatment measures into the Prevention Law of
Epidemics. This means each local government has the legal
responsibility in reporting the exact situation about SARS. What I
announced today is the number of cases which have been diagnosed as
SARS, including the cases in Guangdong, Beijing and Shanxi
Province. The number is correct. In some areas, though, there might
be imported SARS cases. The Ministry of Health has sent out an
expert team to these areas to investigate. Once new areas are
verified to be SARS affected, we will release the latest news at
that time.
Beijing has now 22 patients diagnosed as SARS cases, of whom four
have died. As you know, most cases in Beijing are imported ones.
Once a patient is verified to have caught atypical pneumonia, we'll
send him/her to an appointed hospital. To better control the
disease, we take corresponding measures to separate patients and
medical workers. Practices show the separation is safe for medical
workers and effective for SARS control. Some who have had contact
with SARS patients but are no longer in need of separation will
leave hospital soon.
Question: Mr. Vice Minister, first, could you please
introduce in general the epidemic situation of SARS in Beijing?
Second, what measures are being taken at present to control the
epidemic as well as to guarantee the safety of local citizens and
visitors to Beijing from other parts of the country against the
disease?
Ma Xiaowei: I have just made a report about the epidemic
situation in Beijing to everyone here. Beijing municipal government
has been taking many kinds of measures to control extending the
epidemic and to protect and guarantee the safety of domestic and
foreign visitors to Beijing. The following are measures in brief
that we have taken:
- Open 24-hour English helpline concerning SARS. Beijing
Municipal Health Bureau established special webpage to answer
foreigners' questions about SARS.
- Some hospitals with advanced equipment and technology were
assigned to offer medical services to foreign SARS patients.
The Foreign Affaires Office of the municipal government has invited
foreign embassies and consulates to China, business firms and media
to attend often-held press conferences on this issue and
distributed to them all related publicity material. The municipal
educational authority has organized overseas students in Beijing to
attend such meetings where they have been informed of the epidemic
and prevention information about SARS.
For foreigners entering China, they are to be given a kind of
tour-card on which is printed the prevention information of SARS
and telephone numbers for contact with relevant hospitals.
Sterilization for epidemic prevention in airport and transportation
facilities has been reinforced. Taxis are to be sterilized
daily.
We
are going to build up a medical team made up of competent experts
to specially offer medical services to foreigners. Meanwhile,
manpower of over a thousand people from Beijing will carry out
mobile supervision around the country. Once finding the epidemic,
they will report it to the public immediately. The Chinese Ministry
of Foreign Affairs has sent messages to local foreign affairs
offices around the country, ordering them to follow those measures
taken in Beijing.
Question: Yesterday, I called the Ministry of Health and
they told us they hadn't got the exact number of SARS cases in
military hospital. Now, I'd like to ask if the case number you gave
us includes all cases from all hospitals? The second question, are
there any primary cases in other places besides Guangdong? Recently
we found many new cases in Shanxi. Is it possible they are not
imported cases from Guangdong, but were infected in Shanxi? At the
beginning it was said that more aged people had been infected with
SARS and died. Are there many children infected with SARS because
their parents had been infected with SARS?
Ma Xiaowei: The reported number of SARS cases includes all
the diagnosed cases from local hospitals, professional hospitals
and military hospitals.
In
case of Shanxi, the situation we know is that the first SARS case
there was imported from somewhere else. Then, some people who had
close contact with the patient were infected with SARS, including
some doctors. Now there are 32 SARS cases in Shanxi. The Ministry
of Health has sent a group of experts to investigate the situation
in the province and we will report it as soon as we get the
result.
According to death cases in Guangdong, children and old people are
not the main death generation. The death cases include people of
all age brackets.
Zhong Nanshan: I'd like to clarify something. In Guangdong
Province, most SARS infected patients are middle aged and young
men. There are some old people infected with SARS and the death
rate among them is high. But it does not mean children and the
elderly are the main death generation. It is very difficult to say
where the contagious disease comes from and if the disease is
brought from any other place. For example, the residents in the
Amoy Garden in Hong Kong went to Guangdong for fear of SARS in that
Garden and infected other people in Guangdong. With the development
of the disease there are both primary and imported cases in some
areas.
Question: Is there a concrete number to show the suspect
cases of SARS in China? What are the conditions of the case
distribution in every province and area? Moreover, compared with
many countries that continually released relevant news, it seems
China gave out little information. According to the Chinese Center
for Diseases Control and Prevention, there is a diagnostic criteria
for suspect cases in medical circles. World Health Organization
(WHO) experts working in Guangdong Province also told us that
despite great effort to collect information for the cases, they
have not yet released any information so far. My question is that
why can't you give out this information and what is the
content?
Qi Xiaoqiu: To date, the concrete pathogeny of SARS is not
yet clear. Although China and WHO both have set up diagnostic
criteria for SARS, there are still many things that need to be
understood in the course of diagnosis. So in line with the
requirements of the Ministry of Health, the SARS diagnosis is
categorized into three parts: diagnosis case, suspect case and
object for medical observation. The number we offered to WHO and
released to the public should incorporate diagnosis cases and
suspect cases. For example, the number of cases in Hunan Province
is cut down by two now as they are treated as suspect patients
before and were found to be all right later. Therefore we make
continuous updating to our numbers.
In
order to further prevent SARS from spreading, varied local health
departments made medical observations which have expanded to many
closely concerned people. It is unreasonable to count up the number
of these people.
Question: How reliable do you think the information
collected in the epidemic areas is? Did local officials accurately
report the number of infected people? Generally speaking, they
could have hidden the truth and made a false report with data for
fear of losing face or their job. Do you think China should further
enhance the transparency of the health authorities? The Ministry of
Health should provide the public and media with some free
information. Do you think China should take some measures to make
information more accessible?
Ma Xiaowei: We are adhering to the principle of early found
and early reported. The accuracy of the number is very important to
the judgment of the epidemic situation and also important to what
measures we should take. The State Council has taken effective
measures. The atypical pneumonia has been put into the category of
a national epidemic disease. Local governments are required by law
to report the epidemic situation. Once there are new epidemic
disease outbreaks or new suspected cases, the Ministry of Health
will send experts to investigate the situation within 24 hours and
provide assistance in epidemiology and aetiology.
In
addition, we will further perfect the information report system and
establish an information report center to handle emergences. This
work is under discussion by concerning departments and will start
up soon. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health will conduct
investigation on those who failed to report the data of epidemic
disease accurately.
According to current feedback from expert groups, the local
governments of various levels are taking active measures to deploy
the prevention work of the atypical pneumonia. The disease control
departments of all parts of the country are trying their best to do
some prevention work and report the epidemic situation timely,
accurately and scientifically.
There is one thing I think you may have noticed that China is such
a vast country with huge population that it is an enormous task to
conduct broad investigations on some unidentified disease. I
believe the work of reporting epidemic situations will be improved
after we take the measures.
Question: Many people have no doubt about the doctors' words
on the number of SARS cases but they are suspicious of data from
government sources. For instance, if a doctor from a Beijing
hospital says that SARS cases in Beijing are over 60, people tend
to believe his words. How do you reconcile the disparity of the
data?
Ma Xiaowei: Beijing has received 22 patients confirmed
contaminating SARS. The majority of the 22 persons came from
outside the city to seek medical help here. They were received in a
number of hospitals and got transferred to hospitals appointed by
the Beijing municipal government as SARS treating bases after they
were confirmed to have SARS. Staff members coming into contact with
SARS patients from those hospitals are quarantined to receive
medical observation for the sake of their health as well as disease
prevention. It's true that some of these quarantined people include
medical workers have some suspicious symptoms but none of them have
been confirmed to have SARS yet. Now many of the quarantined people
have proved to be healthy and will be allowed to leave hospital
soon.
If
we found a person among these people under clinical observation to
have symptoms of SARS, we'll treat him/her in those appointed
hospitals and report the case to WHO in time.
Zhong Nanshan: I'd like to answer this lady's inquiry as a
supplement to Mr. Ma's answer. If one is not a doctor in this
field, he'll take it for granted that any symptom means the
disease. Take my institute as an instance: we have 13 colleagues
suffering from SARS after they were in contact with SARS patients.
But some people thought the figure should be over 20 or even 30
because they equate symptoms with the disease. Such discrepancies
are common and I am never surprised at that.
Question: Could you introduce the situation of hospitals in
Beijing and do military hospitals give their case report to the
Ministry of Health as other hospitals?
Ma Xiaowei: A military hospital in Beijing received a SARS
patient from Shanxi Province in March. Seven of the total 12 people
in contact with the patient during treatment were infected. Among
them, five have recovered and two have died. They are all included
in the Beijing's statistics of 22 infected and 4 deaths.
Question: I interviewed Vice Primer Wu Yi and attended a
press conference yesterday. The experts from WHO praised the
Chinese government's cooperation. Could you introduce the
government's further cooperation with WHO?
Ma Xiaowei: The experts from WHO discussed the situation of
SARS and gave us advice on how to prevent and control the disease.
Chinese government will cooperate with WHO to look for the cause of
SARS and the disease's clinical diagnosis and treatment. We'll also
cooperate with respect of the epidemic germ.
(China.org.cn April 10, 2003)