China has efficient systems in place to tackle infectious disease outbreaks
The mainland now has efficient monitoring and response systems in place to sound the alarm and tackle any outbreak of an infectious disease
There is a traditional Chinese saying that a setback may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. That's certainly the case for the mainland's public health system, which has developed in leaps and bounds since a big wake-up call over its weak response to the Sars outbreak in 2003.
The severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic exposed the mainland's lack of emergency planning for major public health crises and the absence of a central command system. Health officials blamed a poor disease reporting system for a lack of timely information and a weak disease prevention and control system.
Feng Zijian , associate director general of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said establishing a stronger public health system had been on the agenda before Sars. The CDC was founded in 2001 but the "epidemic two years later accelerated the process in a big way and boosted its development".
In the wake of Sars, billions of yuan were spent in building emergency centres and hospitals for infectious diseases in central and western provinces. Another 14.3 billion yuan (HK$17.76 billion) was spent on an information network and on prevention and control of serious illnesses.
By 2006 the Ministry of Health had declared that the mainland had basically established a disease prevention and control system and a public health emergency response system.
"The hardware, such as buildings and facilities, were renovated and maintained and then the equipment for the laboratories and offices was installed," Feng said. "A national, almost real-time, internet-based, direct reporting system for communicable diseases and public health incidents was established, which now covers 98 per cent of CDCs and medical institutions at county level or above and 88 per cent of township hospitals."
Before the CDC system, there was a network of anti-epidemic stations in counties and at prefecture and provincial levels. There was no comprehensive central agency for public health at the time.