China on full alert for swine flu
Posted: 28 April 2009 1849 hrs
 | ||||||||||||||||||
 A woman walks past a screen broadcasting news about the swine flu in downtown Beijing, China. | ||||||||||||||||||
|
BEIJING - China went on full alert Tuesday to head off swine flu, with authorities ordering stepped up supervision of the world's biggest pig population as several children fell sick with suspicious symptoms.
President Hu Jintao ordered the government to step up measures to prevent the virus entering China and control any possible outbreak to "ensure the people's health and safety", state television said in a brief report.
However, the World Health Organization said there were no confirmed or even probable cases of the potentially deadly virus in China, and said the government's surveillance system was working.
"There are several suspected cases under investigation," said Hans Troedsson, the WHO representative in China.
He told a press conference that he believed a school in the northern Chinese province of Shaanxi had been closed down as one of several precautions taken by the government since global fears over swine flu emerged.
"The students had symptoms of respiratory infections," he said.
But he added that as far as he knew, none of the students at the school had been to Mexico, the epicentre of the outbreak. He gave no details of the location of the school.
He also said it was likely they did not have swine flu.
"There are no confirmed and no probable cases in China," he said.
An official at the Shaanxi provincial health department, who declined to give her name, said she had no information on the reported incident.
Swine flu is believed to have claimed the lives of more than 150 people in Mexico and is known to have spread to the United States, Canada, Britain, Spain, Israel and New Zealand.
China has close to 450 million pigs -- half of the world's total -- according to the national meat industry body, making the Asian nation a potentially high-risk location.
China's leaders on Tuesday pledged open and quick reporting of any cases of swine flu, as they ordered the mobilisation of the nation's health system to tackle the potential crisis.
The government, heavily criticised for initially covering up the SARS epidemic in 2003, has made fighting the disease its "central task," according to a statement issued after a Cabinet meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao.
The State Council ordered a raft of measures including the establishment of a "direct reporting system on the epidemic leading to early discovery, early reports, early diagnosis, early quarantine and early treatment."
"As soon as cases are discovered in our borders they must be publicly announced in a timely manner," the Cabinet statement said.
China initially tried to deny the existence of the deadly outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, within its borders -- acknowledged it only after the illness spilled over into other countries.
Troedsson, who met with China's health minister earlier Tuesday, said he believed the situation was different now.
"China and other countries are much better prepared than before SARS and avian influenza," he said.
The meeting chaired by Wen marked a sharp escalation in China's response on swine flu, as the situation overseas has quickly worsened.
The State Council ordered strict monitoring of people arriving in China from affected areas and strengthened supervision of the pig-raising industry, pig markets, and the import and exports of pigs.
- AFP/ir
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=28080.3
No comments:
Post a Comment