Vice Minister of Health Gao Qiang told a press conference in
Beijing Friday that over the past number of months the Chinese
government has taken the following eight measures to prevent the
spread of the SARS epidemic in the country.
These measures are:
1. Improving health legislation and managing SARS according to
law. The Chinese government included SARS in the list of
notifiable infectious diseases and SARS was managed according to
the law of prevention and control of infectious diseases. The State
Council issued the Regulations of Public Health Emergency Response
and the Ministry of Health formulated the Protocols of SARS
Management. The disease reporting system was improved and
prevention and treatment measures were enhanced. The local
government was required to detect and report the epidemic
accurately and manage the epidemic according to law.
2. Enhancing organization and leadership and establishing
unified coordination and command. The State Council established
SARS prevention and control headquarters headed by Vice Premier Wu
Yi. Local governments of various levels gave SARS control the
utmost priority. Responsibilities were clarified and resources were
pooled together for central command. All medical resources were
integrated and control measures were scaled up.
3. Controlling SARS in rural areas by mobilizing the public.
Stringent surveillance measures were put in place to monitor
farmers and students who were returning to their hometowns from
cities, so as to cut off transmission. As of today, a total number
of 241 clinically confirmed cases are farmers and there has not
been a large-scale spread in rural areas.
4. Enhancing travel quarantine and establishing passenger
follow-up mechanisms. Civil aviation, railways, boats and
long-distance buses all introduced passenger surveillance,
registration and follow-up systems. SARS patients, once found, were
immediately isolated to cut off transmission.
5. Mobilizing optimal resources to treat patients. Fever
clinics were established in hospitals that have good conditions so
as to differentiate patients. Special hospitals were designated for
SARS treatment to reduce hospital infection.
6. Treating SARS patients through the integration of western
medicine and traditional Chinese medicine to improve treatment
quality. Experts of western medicine and traditional Chinese
medicine were organized to study effective treatment regimes so as
to improve the recovery rate.
7. Increasing government investment and providing medical
assistance. The central government and local governments have
allocated more than 10 billion yuan to purchase medical supplies,
drugs and protective materials and treat farmers and urban
residents who have financial difficulties, free of charge. In
future more financial resources will be allocated to strengthen
disease control, the information network and medical
assistance.
8. Developing technical exchange and enhancing scientific
research. China has maintained good cooperative relations with
the WHO and many countries, constantly exchanging information with
them to improve its work. In addition, the mainland has developed
academic exchanges with medical experts from Hong Kong, Macao and
Taiwan to share diagnosis and treatment experience and to work
together on effective treatment and prevention of SARS.
(China.org.cn May 30, 2003)