The Chinese University of Science and Technology, in the capital of east China's Anhui Province, has joined with another institute to open a SARS hotline in Beijing for rural residents.
The university and the Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences jointly set up a hotline on 010-515033369 to provide the latest information on SARS for rural residents.
The automatic answering machine would tell callers the latest information on SARS and how to prevent and treat the disease, a university source said Saturday.
The hotline applied a technology to transform words to a synthetic voice developed by the university.
The Chinese government is making every effort to protect the rural areas from the epidemic.
The hotline will inform rural residents on knowledge and information about SARS, especially those living in remote areas with limited access to data, the source said.
(Xinhua News Agency May 18, 2003)
