Chinanews, Beijing, Mar. 16 – Beijing has worked out emergency schemes for 11 infectious diseases. In addition, the city has set up over 1,000 stations that can monitor epidemic diseases such as SARS and bird flu, said Jin Dapeng, director of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau.

 

Some foreign media are concerned about how Beijing can effectively track the situation related to SARS and bird flu diseases during the Olympic Games period. In responding to this concern, Jin said that during the Olympic Games, the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau would work with agriculture, industry and commerce, education, aviation, railway, and highway departments, to set up a multi-level monitoring system for disease prevention.

 

At present, all medical institutions above the village and town level have adopted a direct computer reporting system for infectious diseases. In addition, 171 medical institutions have been designated as official institutions for reporting infectious diseases and there are 21 computer systems set up for reporting major infectious diseases, he said.

 

Beijing now has 352 stations to monitor enteric infection, 36 stations to monitor bird flu, 7 stations to monitor pestis, and 667 vaccination injection clinics. In places near the Olympic stadiums and gymnasiums, the city has set up 4 places to monitor the density of mosquitoes, 90 places to monitor the density of flies, 108 places to detect cockroaches, and 108 places to detect rats, Jin revealed.

 

So far, Beijing has completed a research program on the detection and risk assessment of major public health incidences for the Olympic Games. The city has set up the emergency handling systems and related monitoring system to prevent the outbreak of major infectious diseases and big public incidences, Jin added.