Fear of SARS the Main Enemy

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Fear of SARS the Main Enemy

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Like Wang Shuo, a 21-year-old university student in Beijing, for many residents of the capital, wearing a gauze mask is more psychological balm as the city is battling severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

"I wonder whether it is in fact necessary....as many experts said people need not put it on in daily life," said Wang, adding that it was his worried parents who had urged him to wear the mask.

He admitted that news of the spread of SARS had influenced his life. "For example, I will not go to public places like shopping malls and theatres too frequently," he said.

"I hope that the authorities will get the whole situation under control in the near future," he added.

There was a different picture on the capital's underground train system. Sources with the Beijing Metro Management Company said passenger numbers had remained stable.

A series of measures by the government aimed at containing the disease have also been released in succession.

To prevent further spread of the disease, special medical stations will soon be established across China in cities on main rail, road and water links. Similar measures are already in force at airports to identify suspected victims of the deadly SARS virus. The announcement was made in a joint document issued by five departments under the State Council Monday - the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Communications and the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China.

The stations will be responsible for receiving, observing and providing medical treatment in isolation for suspected victims found in transit.

During his visit to Guangdong Province, President Hu Jintao said Monday that all efforts should be made to prevent and control the spread of SARS and no effort should be spared in treating those affected.

At the same time, greater efforts must be made to strengthen supervision of the epidemic to prevent it from spreading and rebounding, he said.

Governments at various levels have been asked to give more support to all those at the forefront of the medical battle, including hospitals and research institutes. This will create better conditions for the treatment of patients and the search for the cause of the disease, Hu noted.

The State Council Monday outlined a series of urgent moves for establishing a mechanism to deal with the situation. They include the introduction of new laws and regulations, setting up a rapid response command system, improving information networks, establishing a national and local disease prevention and treatment network, and strengthening the medical facilities.

Some public services have also been looking at various ways of preventing the spread of the disease.While many pharmacies in Beijing have developed their own bottled Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for SARS prevention based on a formula of Jiang Liangduo, a professor with the Dongzhimen Hospital with the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.

"We sold out the first batch of 80,000 bottles of the preventive medicine in a day and over 10,000 bottles have been ordered," said Kong Yanping, office director of the Dashilar Store of the Beijing Tongrentang Group, China's most prestigious TCM outlet, yesterday.

The shop has extended its opening hours to midnight to cope with customer demand.

The Ministry of Science and Technology is to allocate 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) to bolster scientific research into finding more effective ways of fighting the disease, the ministry's secretary general Shi Dinghuan announced at a press conference in Beijing Monday.

Organized by the two ministries, a group of researchers from scientific and health departments and the General Logistics Department of the People's Liberation Army, began their studies yesterday afternoon.

As of April 13, the cumulative number of SARS cases had reached 1,418, with 64 deaths in China. A total of 1,088 patients have been discharged from hospital.

On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) added Beijing to its list of SARS-affected areas. Areas are added to the list following indication that chains of local transmission are occurring.

In addition to Beijing, other affected areas in China include Guangdong Province, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Shanxi Province, and Taiwan Province. (China Daily News)

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