Surveillance and monitoring systems against severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS)
has gone into full gear as an estimated 1.89 billion people in
China's mainland are travel around during the
Spring Festival holiday, which falls between January 22 to
28.
Since south China's Guangdong
Province reported three clinically confirmed SARS cases in
December 2003 and January 2004. Beijing,
one of the regions most seriously hit during last year's SARS
outbreak, requires people whose body temperature exceeds 38 degrees
to be sent to special "fever clinics" immediately.
Transport vehicles entering Beijing from Guangdong, Hong Kong
and Taiwan will berth away from other vehicles at airports, railway
stations and bus stations. Passengers from the above regions are
required to take temperature examinations.
In addition, local medical institutions, police and quarantine
departments are also mobilized to safeguard a SARS-free Spring
Festival in the capital city.
Echoing Guangdong's recent move to cull civet cats, one of the
most probable SARS virus carriers, Beijing also banned selling and
eating of the animal, said Deng Xiaohong, vice director of Beijing
Municipal Public Health Bureau.
Quarantine departments have tested the 600 civet cats in Beijing
for the SARS virus and the results are negative, according to
Deng.
In north China's Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region, another former SARS-hit area,
authorities are also on guard.
Zhang Lianzhong, head of the Inner Mongolia Center for Disease
Control and Prevention, said delayed isolation of 12 incoming SARS
patients caused spreading of the disease in Inner Mongolia last
spring and the mistake will not be repeated this year.
The fact that SARS reappeared in Guangdong will not necessarily
lead to another round of SARS in Inner Mongolia, said Zhang, who
considers his hometown well-prepared for any probable SARS
comeback.
Compared to Beijing, Shanghai
effectively controlled the disease quickly last year, and is trying
to continue the success during this year's Spring Festival and in
days to come.
At present, 160 local hospitals have started to report clinical
respiratory and fever pneumonia cases daily to Shanghai's dynamic
SARS surveillance system. Disease control and prevention centers at
various levels have rehearsed SARS emergency procedures many times
to ensure effective reaction to a reoccurrence of SARS.
Over 1,800 epidemiologists and 113 medical emergency teams are
available at any time for a SARS case in Shanghai, according to the
Shanghai Center of Disease Control and Prevention.
While government departments and medical workers are on alert
against SARS, Chinese people's preparations for the Spring Festival
have not been disturbed.
A survey of 2,815 households in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou,
Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan and Shenzhen showed 40
percent of the surveyed families were not afraid of SARS comeback
and 70 percent said they were well-prepared for the another
outbreak.?
(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2004)