No SARS
cases have been found in China at the moment, and once a case is
reported, the Ministry of Health will make it public in the
shortest possible time, China's executive deputy minister of health
Gao Qiang said Saturday.
Gao made the remarks at a ceremony to mark the US company
Kodak's donation of medical equipment to the Chinese Ministry of
Health.
"I cannot say SARS will definitely return, neither can I say
SARS will definitely not return, because there are still many
things about SARS that we don't know," Gao said in response to
reporters' question on whether the SARS epidemic would return in
the coming winter and next spring.
"The Chinese government has intensified measures to prevent and
control the disease. Even if SARS returns, the scenario like what
had happened in China earlier this year will definitely not occur,"
he said.
Governments at various levels in the country have drawn out
detailed plans against SARS, and in some places exercises to handle
SARS-related emergency cases have been staged to improved the
plans.
"We have set up a relatively complete epidemic reporting system
by connecting the computer networks of the state epidemic
surveillance institutions with those at the county level," Gao
said.
According to the official, the Health Ministry has intensified
efforts to train health and medical workers, improve technical
guidelines and enhance scientific research for SARS prevention and
control.
"The endeavor of the health sector is targeted at securing a
safe environment for the life, study and work of the public," Gao
said.
Gao also thanked foreign enterprises and companies including
Kodak that had offered help to China for its fight against
SARS.
Kodak on Saturday donated three mobile clinics to the ministry
to help China improve medical service for people in its remote
provinces.
(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2003)