New rules require open reporting of epidemics in China

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New rules require open reporting of epidemics in China

 

Jia Hepeng

7 September 2004

Source: SciDev.Net

 

[bEIJING] China has tightened up its law on the

prevention of epidemics requiring the public release

of information about epidemics by medical

institutions, and tightening the sanctions on those

who are found to have withheld such information.

 

The move comes shortly after questions were raised

about the fact that foreign researchers had been left

unaware of research results, published in a Chinese

language journal at the beginning of this year,

indicating a possible infection of pigs by the bird

flu virus.

 

It takes the form of a revision of a previous law on

preventing epidemics. The amendment was passed by the

Chinese National People's Congress — the equivalent of

the Chinese parliament — at the end of last month, and

is intended to provide a legal basis for the release

of information about epidemics.

 

The revised legislation stipulates, for example, that

medical institutes and individuals must report

epidemic information about a list of diseases in a

timely fashion, and also report the outbreak of other

unknown epidemics. In contrast, the previous version

only required reporting two 'class A' diseases —

namely plague and cholera — and 22 'class B' diseases.

 

The new law sets out in detail the timing and

procedures to be followed in releasing information

about epidemics, and also requires military medical

institutions to report epidemic information to civil

medical agencies in a timely fashion.

 

Last year, when severe acute respiratory syndrome

(SARS) became widespread in China, health authorities

refused at first to reveal full information about the

outbreak. Their first excuse was that SARS was not

listed in the previous law — meaning that they were

under no obligation to make details public. They later

also protested that there was no regular exchange of

information between military hospitals (where many of

the SARS patients were being treated) and the civil

medical system.

 

Both the Chinese public and the international

community only discovered what was happening through

information smuggled out of the country by a retired

military doctor, Jiang Yanyong.

 

Before abating in July 2003, SARS had killed 774

people worldwide, and infected a further 8,000.

 

In order to combat the rising threat of animal

diseases, the new law also requires the timely

reporting of animal epidemics. This contrasts sharply

with the apparent foot-dragging by Chinese agriculture

authorities in reporting findings by Chinese

scientists that pig samples collected between 2001 and

2003 were infected with the H5N1 (or bird flu) virus.

 

Jia Youling, director of the Veterinary Bureau of the

Ministry of Agriculture, said in a statement that the

bird flu infection had been found as a result of an

isolated experiment, and did not necessarily mean that

bird flu infection had been found in pigs under in

natural conditions.

 

But one observer in Beijing who has followed the issue

closely states that, " The contrast between the late

reporting of bird flu case and the new legal

requirement means that China still lacks effective

procedures for ensuring the timely release of accurate

health information. "

 

The revised law also includes rules protecting the

privacy of former epidemic victims, and others that

seek to eliminate prejudice against epidemic victims,

such as China's 100 million Hepatitis B carriers, who

are currently barred from employment in most

government departments and companies in China.