In order to cope with new infectious diseases and ensure financial support from the government, China's 15-year-old law on infectious disease prevention will be amended.

Executive Vice Minister of Health Gao Qiang said that last year's SARS outbreak exposed many problems in China's current infectious disease prevention and control system.

"China's ability to supervise and give early outbreak warnings of an infectious disease is weak. Epidemic reporting is likewise inefficient. The control of cross-infection is lacking and contingency measures for the outbreak of contagious diseases are lagging. All these problems emerged during the efforts to prevent and control SARS."

With the SARS outbreak, health officials realized the urgency of amending China's infectious disease prevention laws. A new draft amendment underscores preventive efforts in every single link of handling public health emergencies, from reporting and treatment to the control of infectious diseases.

Under the draft amendment, the country will establish a monitoring and early warning system to root out factors that might contribute to the spread of infectious diseases and help specialists to forecast potential epidemic trends.

It also gives additional responsibilities to medical institutions in epidemic monitoring and prevention. The content, procedures and time limit for disease control institutions to report epidemics are specified in the draft.

The draft also adds SARS and highly pathogenic avian influenza to the country's statutory contagious disease list. They are both ranked as Class Two, signifying they are highly communicable.

The vice minister says a lack of funds has weakened local epidemic prevention and control. The draft amendment includes clauses to deal with such problems.

"The draft specifies the government's duty to provide funds and materials once an outbreak occurs. It will play a strong role in preventing the spread of infectious diseases in the future."

The amendment requires governments at county and higher levels to take charge of arranging special funds for epidemic disease prevention and control within their own administrative regions. The central government should subsidize economically backward areas.

Gao Qiang also stressed that the draft amendment aims to strike a balance between the protection of individuals' rights and the interests of the public in the prevention and control of infectious diseases.

(CRI April 6, 2004)