At a press conference sponsored by the State Council Information Office on Thursday morning, Liu Jian, vice minister of agriculture, briefed the press on information collecting, reporting and dissemination in the current national campaign against the highly infectious avian influenza, or “bird flu.”

Vice Minister Liu emphasized the importance of reporting the situation promptly. The Ministry of Agriculture has established a daily reporting system that requires local governments at all levels to report any epidemic outbreak. Failure to report or intentional cover-ups are strictly prohibited.

“This policy was published in the media, and was reiterated at a recent working conference convened by the State Council on national prevention of the highly pathogenic avian influenza,” he said.

The ministry has issued 300,000 copies of an information pamphlet on policies and laws for bird flu prevention. These pamphlets have already been distributed to grassroots organs all over the country. More than ten inspection groups have been organized by the ministry to ensure its policies are enforced at the local level. “Policies should be made known to the people so as to ensure both the flow of information and the implementation of the policies,” Liu said.

Liu stressed that there would be no cover-up or delay in reporting the situation. “As you may know, soon after an infectious bird flu case was confirmed by the State Reference Laboratory on January 27, the Ministry of Agriculture publicized the situation immediately. At the same time, it informed the Beijing Representative Offices of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) without any delay.”

Governmental administrative departments at all levels must handle the epidemic based on the Chinese Law on Animal Epidemic Prevention. The Ministry of Agriculture has warned these departments not to conceal or fail to report information. Random reporting is also forbidden. Liu emphasized that the situation must be reported in accordance with the law and that scientific procedures must be used in assessing the epidemic. “Recently, we have further improved the technical standards of these reports,” Liu added.

The Ministry of Agriculture has reported 23 cases of bird flu across the mainland. It has required that affected places take prompt action, such as slaughter, blockade and enforced immunization to prevent the epidemic from spreading.

Vice Minister Liu announced that the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health have established a cooperative system, periodically sharing information with each other. Each case confirmed by the Ministry of Agriculture is to be reported to the Ministry of Health immediately. The Ministry of Agriculture also requires that local government departments in charge of farming and husbandry promptly report relevant situations to their health administration departments. Additionally, it has been cooperating with the Ministry of Health to conduct safe disposal in epidemic areas and medical monitoring of persons having contact with the disease.

China has reported to the FAO and WHO on the bird flu epidemic three times since January 27, when the first case was identified. The Ministry of Agriculture has now established a regular reporting mechanism with the FAO.

(China.org.cn February 5, 2004)