Make me your Homepage
    left corner left corner
    China Daily Website

    Ten years after SARS, what has China learned?

    Updated: 2013-04-03 21:52
    (Xinhua)

    BEIJING - The news of two men dying from a new variant of bird flu has reminded Chinese of the SARS pandemic that hit the country one decade ago. Many are wondering if the government will handle the situation any better than it did in 2003, should another pandemic break out.

    For many Chinese, the spring of 2003 was marked by the appearance of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which took the lives of several hundred people on the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

    Now, on the 10th anniversary of the pandemic, fear is spreading following reports of two Shanghai men who died from H7N9 avian influenza, a strain that has not previously been detected in humans.

    That fear was aggravated this week after four more patients in neighboring Jiangsu province were confirmed to have contracted the virus. All four are in critical condition.

    But it is not necessarily the diseases themselves that have stoked fear, but also the way the government has handled them. The way information is made public, the way public health is monitored and the ways in which people observe sanitary guidelines are all under scrutiny.

    As dangerous and new as SARS was, it was the government and people who made the disease more serious. The government, in particular, was criticized for failing to alert the public in a timely fashion. People in south China, where the disease originated, were blamed for eating rare animals that were found to be carrying the disease.

    It may be an exaggeration to compare the H7N9 bird flu to SARS, as the former has yet to show signs of human-to-human transmission. But with a possible public health crisis looming, it is better to be safe than sorry.

    Health authorities have demonstrated some positive signs regarding their ability to deal with the disease. Public health departments across the country have announced that they will monitor the disease closely.

    However, authorities need to make persistent efforts to satisfy people who have become much more aware of their right to knowledge regarding public health issues.

    Although the government learned a great deal from the SARS outbreak, it still demonstrates signs of immaturity. The Shanghai government has been singled out for not notifying the public about the two H7N9 deaths until nearly half a month after the deaths occurred.

    The city also failed to provide details regarding 14,000 dead pigs that have been discovered floating on the Huangpu River in recent months. The river is a major source of Shanghai's drinking water.

    Although the municipal government has told its residents not to worry about the quality of their drinking water, it has failed to reply to queries about the origin of the pigs and how they ended up in the river without being discovered.

    Since the bird flu cases occurred in the same city and its adjacent regions shortly after the pigs were spotted, theories about possible connections between the two have arisen.

    Although authorities in Shanghai said this week that no bird flu virus was detected from samples of dead pigs taken from the river, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it has not ruled out pigs as the carrier of the disease.

    The farmers responsible for dumping the pigs should not escape blame. The pigs were reportedly dumped in the river by farmers from nearby Zhejiang Province, as the farmers were unable to sell the dead pigs to unscrupulous "meat processors" after local police cracked down on such activities.

    Although the government does provide compensation for farmers whose animals perish, such compensation is only provided to large-scale farmers, who represent a fraction of China's agricultural industry.

    The fragmented nature of the agricultural sector also makes regulation difficult to enforce, as multiple food safety scandals have demonstrated in recent years.

    If there is anything that SARS has taught China and its government, it's that one cannot be too careful or too honest when it comes to deadly pandemics. The last 10 years have taught the government a lot, but it is far from enough.

    8.03K
     
    ...
    Hot Topics
    China launched its second space laboratory, the Tiangong II, on Thursday night, which space officials said will become the country’s largest scientific platform in space.
    ...
    ...
    中文字幕精品亚洲无线码二区| 激情无码人妻又粗又大中国人| 久久亚洲AV成人出白浆无码国产| 人妻无码αv中文字幕久久琪琪布| 一本无码中文字幕在线观| 精品久久亚洲中文无码| 人妻夜夜添夜夜无码AV| 亚洲伊人久久综合中文成人网 | 中文字幕无码不卡在线| 亚洲久本草在线中文字幕| 日韩人妻无码精品久久免费一| 日本无码WWW在线视频观看| 亚洲中文字幕在线乱码| 国产精品久久久久无码av | 亚洲国产精品无码专区| 中文字幕av一区| 中文字幕无码第1页| 久久人妻少妇嫩草AV无码蜜桃| 精品三级AV无码一区| 亚洲日韩中文无码久久| 国产成年无码AV片在线韩国| 少妇中文无码高清| 最近2019好看的中文字幕 | 无码播放一区二区三区| 最近2019中文字幕免费大全5| 色综合久久综合中文综合网| 天堂а√在线中文在线最新版| 亚洲午夜无码久久久久小说| 免费a级毛片无码| 免费无码又爽又黄又刺激网站| 精品无码人妻一区二区三区| 日日麻批免费40分钟无码| 久久精品中文字幕无码绿巨人| 日韩av无码中文字幕| 久久99精品久久久久久hb无码| 免费精品无码AV片在线观看| 久久精品无码专区免费东京热 | 国产高清无码毛片| 日韩精品无码免费视频| 亚洲欧美精品一中文字幕| 久久中文字幕一区二区|