Health workers will soon be using a computer package to view the
movements of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) patients on
Beijing's streets and to identify other people who may have had
potentially lethal contact with the carriers.
With the system, the spread of the SARS virus can be effectively
mapped, according to Liu Jiyuan, president of the Institute of
Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research at the Chinese
Academy of Sciences.
"The computerized tool will allow the health situation to be
analyzed and monitored," Liu told China Daily Monday.
"An evaluation of the effectiveness of intervention, which is
required for the decision-making and the planning of the continued
fight against SARS, can then be made."
Health workers will get information from SARS patients and people
suspected of having the virus, said Zhuang Dafang, a professor with
Liu's institute.
The details -- such as a person's residential area, where they work
and visit and who their friends are -- will be put into a database
and after a few clicks of a mouse button, health workers will be
able to highlight the areas that are considered most dangerous.
The information will strengthen the capacity for epidemiological
analysis and the forecasting of potential exposure, Liu said.
The data can easily be sent to the Beijing Centre for Disease
Control and Prevention to get an up to date picture of SARS in
Beijing, the hardest hit area on the mainland.
The institute agreed at the weekend to provide the centre with the
computer package by Saturday.
The technology is expected to be in use by May 20, after enough
people are trained to use the system and it is tested.
Zeng Guang, a leading researcher at the disease control and
prevention centre, said he hopes the system will be widely used
throughout China in the near future.
"The technology is there for the system to be used on a national
level," Zhuang said.
(China Daily May 6, 2003)