The Chinese Ministry of Health (MOH) Sunday warned the country's
health-care departments to remain alert while the SARS (severe
acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic was stabilized on the
mainland.
Gao Qiang, executive vice-minister of health, told a
nationally-televised meeting of the health-care system that the
country witnessed a downward trend of newly reported SARS cases and
over 80 percent of them were suspect-turned-diagnosed cases.
China reported 5,316 accumulative SARS cases as of 10:00 a.m.
Sunday, including 16 cases diagnosed in the past 24 hours. The
mysterious flu-like disease has killed 315 people on the mainland
and caused public panic at its peak.
Gao said the daily average of new cases dropped from 80 in the
first ten days of May to 20 now. Thirteen of the 25 SARS-hit
provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions reported less than
10 accumulative SARS cases while some others have only suspect
cases.
The SARS cases were concentrated in China's northern provinces
surrounding Beijing, including Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, and
Tianjin, Gao said.
Most of the SARS patients in south China's Guangdong Province,
which reported the first SARS patient and once was the
worst-affected region, have recovered and left hospital, the
vice-minister said.
There is no evidence that the communicable disease has broken out
in China's vast rural area, which accounts for more than one
billion of the country's population, Gao said, adding that only 248
farmers and 299 migrant workers have contracted the virus.
This indicates the SARS situation in China has eased, Gao said.
However, health-care departments should be on the alert for the
rebound of the disease as people's awareness of self-protection
might be lowered by the good news, he said.
Gao urged the local medical departments to timely adjust and
improve prevention and treatment measures according to their own
situation and practice.
In
addition to a national emergency disease reporting system, Gao
said, local medical departments should also establish disease
reporting networks from the provincial level to the village level,
and the designated hospitals for treating contagious diseases
should be set up at the prefectural and city level.
The provincial health-care authorities should prepare mobile
emergency medical teams with first-class doctors and equipment for
future epidemics, Gao said, adding that all those aims should be
fulfilled in two years.
Gao stressed the use of traditional Chinese medicines in the SARS
fight, which he said had been successful in combating numerous
diseases and epidemics over its development of thousands of
years.
The vice-minister also underlined the prevention work of other
epidemics, saying local medical institutes should keep an eye on
those diseases.
(Xinhua News Agency May 25, 2003)