Shamed by SARS, China vows transparency

Beijing swings into action against swine flu in a dramatic contrast to 2003's policy of denial
By MARK MACKINNON
BEIJING -- There has not yet been a single confirmed case of swine flu in China, but an epidemic of official anxiety over the virus has already struck this country, with the government taking pains to show that it has learned from its bungled handling of the SARS outbreak in 2003.
"Precaution" was the one-word headline in the official China Daily newspaper yesterday, running amid a series of photographs of people around the world wearing face masks to guard against the spread of the killer swine flu. 

President Hu Jintao ordered the government to step up efforts to keep the virus from entering China and to control any possible outbreak to "ensure the people's health and safety," state television reported. 

Premier Wen Jiabao weighed in as well, and government officials of every level were tripping over themselves yesterday to declare how swiftly and transparently they would report on any swine flu outbreak in this country of 1.3 billion people.

A school was closed Sunday in the northwestern province of Shaanxi and students were examined after several displayed flu-like symptoms that were reportedly later determined to have been caused by relatively common Type-B influenza. 

Several other suspected cases were being examined, although none were described by the World Health Organization as likely to be the H1N1 strain of swine flu that has killed scores in Mexico and rapidly spread to Canada, the United States and several other countries. 

South Korea and Thailand were among the countries investigating probable cases of swine flu yesterday.

Hans Troedsson, the WHO's representative in China, said the reporting of suspected cases in Shaanxi and elsewhere suggested that the government is well prepared for the potential spread of the virus. 

"If you don't have any suspected cases, I would say that your surveillance system might not work that well. So, it's actually a good indication that they have a surveillance system that works," he said after meeting with representatives from the Ministry of Health.
Though bigger tests are likely to lie ahead, the government's willingness to report even suspected cases of swine flu already stands in stark contrast to 2003, when Chinese officials were accused of abetting the spread of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, by initially denying its existence and then underreporting the scope of what was happening. 

SARS eventually killed 650 people in China and the handling of the epidemic sparked rare public displays of anger at the government.

Shamed and smartened, Beijing is vowing to be a model of transparency this time around. 

The policy-making State Council declared fighting the spread of the swine flu virus its "central task" and ordered a host of measures be put into place, including the creation 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," a statement released by the State Council said. 

The government also banned pork imports from Mexico and the U.S. states of Texas, Kansas and California.

Because of its mammoth population and densely packed cities -- not to mention the 450 million pigs raised here, half the global total -- China is seen as being at high risk as the virus spreads and any outbreak of swine flu could have devastating effects here.

However, the SARS experience should help China cope if swine flu does cross its borders. Temperature screening machines have been in use at many Chinese airports since the epidemic. The special autonomous region of Hong Kong -- which was hit hardest by SARS, with 1,755 infections and 299 deaths in 2003 -- is among the best-prepared cities anywhere, with 1,400 beds available in respiratory isolation units as a result of SARS and a stockpile of some 20 million treatment courses of Tamiflu, a medicine to which the swine flu has yet to develop resistance, for its population of seven million people.

Even the official press has made clear that the public expects better from its leaders this time around. 

"China must remember the lessons it learned from the SARS experience: that transparency of information is essential for combatting the spread of an infectious outbreak," read yesterday's editorial in the Global Times, a mouthpiece of the Communist Party. 

"The more information the public is provided with, the better equipped we will be as a country and as a society to decrease its potential impact."