Existing and re-emerging infectious diseases are a greater
threat than biological weapons, experts said at an international
meeting in Beijing yesterday, the same day Macao issued warnings of
an expected dengue fever outbreak.
"Although we must keep alert and make preparations against the
intentional use of bioweapons and bioterrorism, naturally occurring
outbreaks are still the biggest enemy," Cao Wuchun from the Academy
of Military Medical Sciences told China Daily.
Cao, deputy director of the academy's Institute of Microbiology
and Epidemiology, was speaking on the opening day of the
International Workshop on Infectious Diseases and Bio-safety, and
said that China is developing technology to resist possible
attacks.
Innovations such as devices that warn of biological agents are
vital for national defense and also for large public events like
the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Cao added.
Wang Yu, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and
Prevention, said that there are new challenges from infectious
diseases such as influenza, HIV/AIDS, SARS (severe acute
respiratory syndrome), viral hepatitis and even hemorrhagic fevers
like Marburg disease and Ebola.
The State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and
Quarantine issued an order on Monday for checks for Marburg disease
to be strengthened. Last week, the Ministry of Health denied rumors
that there had been a case of Ebola in Shenzhen.
Wang told the workshop that since 1973 about 40 new pathogens,
half of which are caused by viruses, have been discovered.
SARS killed almost 800 people, mostly in Hong Kong and the
Chinese mainland, in a worldwide outbreak that infected more than
8,000 by the end of 2003.
There are 820,000 Chinese people with the parasitic blood
condition schistosomiasis (snail fever or bilharzia) and a further
40 million people are at risk of contracting it, while 1.3 million
new tuberculosis cases are reported each year, said Wang.
Cao said threats can also come from accidental leakage of
pathogens from laboratories, as took place in an outbreak of SARS
in Beijing last year that spread to Anhui
Province.
Since 2003, the government has strengthened procedures at
various levels, said Cao, to safeguard public health and protect
against biological threats.
Also on Tuesday, Macao's Health Bureau warned citizens to be on
high alert for dengue fever, which is very likely to break out this
summer, as it usually does every three to four years.
The bureau said that it would mobilize a large number of
volunteers to aid prevention measures from April 6 to June 25.
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency April 6, 2005)