China's health services are better prepared against the disease of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and are confident of keeping it under control if the disease ever recurred, Vice-Health Minister Huang Jiefu said in Beijing Monday.

China had made significant progress in readying for a public health emergency since early this year, Huang said at a two-day international forum on SARS control and prevention scheduled to end Tuesday.

"We have greatly improved and strengthened our reaction system to public health emergencies and the public, medical and health staff as well as government officials are also better prepared," said Huang, adding that the ministry has cooperated with the international community and trained a large number of staff.

Huang said international cooperation in fighting SARS should be continued and strengthened since SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) remained a mystery in many aspects.

"We still don't know where the virus comes from, neither do we have a SARS vaccine or effective medicine to cure the disease," said Huang.

Under the coordination of the World Health Organization (WHO), 13 laboratories around the world identified the coronavirus of SARS and that the virus might come from wildlife, said Huang.

Henk Bekedam, WHO representative in China, also called for joint efforts to eliminate SARS. "Globalization makes it easier for a disease in one place to be transferred immediately to other places in the world."

"China and the world are better prepared for SARS, but there is still an urgency and opportunity for the international community to join efforts to eliminate the disease so that it won't pose a threat," he said.

He noted that finding a SARS vaccine and effective medicine were essential. "We can't solely rely on health workers' diligence and sacrifice in defeating SARS if it broke out again."

He also called on the Chinese government to increase investment and improve its public health system. The SARS outbreak early this year told the world how a modern society should manage and react to a public health emergency, he said.

Improvements in public health system could not completely rely on the market, and government should play an important role in securing public health, he said.

"A sound public health system can't be set up overnight," said Bekedam, adding that the WHO was glad to help the Chinese government in completing the task.

Another WHO expert, Julie Hall, suggested the organization's member states enforce work in four aspects including rumor investigation, disease survey, risk estimation and an integrated surveillance system.

Rumor investigation could help discover the disease at an early stage; disease survey ensured that new diseases would not be ignored; risk estimation helped carry out effective surveillance; an integrated surveillance system could gather information from all sectors including clinics, laboratories and food safety monitoring agencies, said Hall.

SARS cases had been reported in 24 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China since the beginning of 2003. Total SARS cases totaled 5,327 on the mainland, including 349 deaths, till Aug. 16.

Han Demin, deputy director of the Beijing Health Bureau, acknowledged that the Beijing municipal government has allocated approximately 800 million yuan (nearly US$96.4 million) to win the campaign against SARS. "Plus the investment from social organizations and finical and health departments at nationality as well as cost in refurbishing hospitals after SARS epidemic, the number probably totaled at two billion to three billion yuan."

The deputy director promised that Beijing would fully upgrade its capacity in handling public health emergencies through the establishment of four systems, including the disease prevention and control system, emergency medical treatment system, the public health information system and law-enforcement and monitoring of public health.

The forum, which had drawn more than 200 health, public management and media experts from home and abroad, was held at the co-sponsorship of the Chinese Ministry of Health and Italian Foreign Ministry.

(Xinhua News Agency December 16, 2003)