A national contingency mechanism to handle public health emergencies has taken shape after nearly a year of effort, announced Gao Qiang, executive vice minister of health, on Sunday.

Reporting to the Eight Meeting of the 10th National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, Gao said the outbreak and spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in the spring of 2003 was a typical public health emergency.

SARS not only severely threatened the health and lives of the Chinese people, but also had a negative impact on China’s economic development, social stability and international exchanges, he said.

“The spread of SARS revealed that China’s contingency mechanism for handling public health emergencies was not sound at that time and its ability to cope with emergency public health issues was weak,” he added.

With a year of effort by both the government and medical workers, the mechanism for handling public health emergencies has taken initial form. It includes a sound command system, a comprehensive disease control system, an improved medical treatment system and a stringent law enforcement supervision system, Gao said.

The Ministry of Health has established a command center for coping with public health emergencies. Monitoring, early-warning and reporting systems for dealing with public health issues have been introduced in medical administrative departments at all levels.

From last winter to this spring, a few SARS cases were identified in south China’s Guangdong Province. The country’s command system for public health emergencies efficiently worked to collect epidemic information, curb the spread of the disease, organize advanced medical treatment and release information timely. As a result, there has been no large-scale resurgence of SARS in China, said Gao.

The Chinese government also increased financial backing to set up disease control and prevention organizations. The central government and local governments have allocated 6.8 billion yuan (US$821 million) to hasten the construction of disease control and prevention centers in local areas. All of them are expected to be completed by the end of 2004.

The State Development and Reform Committee has earmarked 634 million yuan (US$76.6 million) for the first phase of the State Disease Control and Prevention Center. Construction of the 760,000-square-meter center will begin this year.

The central government now requires every municipality, provincial capital and prefectural-level city to have at least one emergency medical aid center and at least one hospital specializing in contagious disease treatment. Every county must have at least one hospital with a special department and reception area for patients suffering infectious diseases.

The central and local governments have allocated a total of 11.4 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) to fulfill the requirements. Of that amount, 5.7 billion yuan (US$688 million) is for hospital construction in the backward central and western areas.

Special local medical teams for dealing with public health emergencies have also been formed. The Ministry of Health will organize a state-level medical team to offer contingency aid when public health emergencies occur.

Gao noted that building and perfecting a contingency mechanism to handle public health emergencies is a very big and complicated project that will continue to require unremitting effort.

(Xinhua News Agency April 5, 2004)