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当民主美国人死了4000个的时候，不禁感叹专制中国才死了30例。
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/world/asia/12chinaflu.html?_r=1&hp
China’s Tough Measures on Flu Appear to Be Effective
CHANGGANG, China — Few farmers in this southern Chinese village gave much thought to the swine fluepidemic that had begun spreading rapidly in the United States earlythis summer until police sealed its 100 residents off from the outsideworld for about a week. It turned out that a visitor from Californiahad shown symptoms of the swine flu virus, or H1N1, when he arrived fora funeral.
Quarantines and medical detentions are among theaggressive measures that Chinese officials have taken to slow thetransmission of H1N1, which quickly spread worldwide after being firstdiagnosed in North America.
To howls of protest from around the world, China isolated entire planeloads of people entering the country if anyone on the plane exhibited flu-likesymptoms. Local authorities canceled school classes at the slightesthint of the disease and ordered students and teachers to stay home.China was virtually alone in taking such harsh measures, which continued throughout most of the summer.
Now, Chinese and foreign health officials say that some of those contested measures— more easily adopted by an authoritarian state — may have helped slowthe spread of the disease in the world’s most populous country. Chinahas not had to cope with a crush of cases, and it began administering avaccine for swine flu in early September, the first country to do so.
Foreignofficials also say China demonstrated an unusual openness to sharinginformation about H1N1 with its citizens and other governments, incontrast to its secretive approach to the near pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, a few years ago.
Thatis not to say that China has been spared. On Tuesday, Health Ministryofficials reported that there had been an “explosive” growth of H1N1infection on the mainland because of the onset of winter, with 5,000new cases in the previous three days pushing the total to more than59,000.
At least 30 people have died here after contracting H1N1.
Exactdata on the virus are hard to pin down; many more cases are suspectedthan confirmed, and countries often use different methods to identifycases. Still, the indications in China are much more positive thanthose in India. Like China, India has more than a billion people, manyliving in poor, rural conditions, and was exposed to the virus after ithad been diagnosed in the West. The Indian Health Ministry has reported505 deaths.
The United States, where the virus was spreading evenbefore it was diagnosed in the spring, has reported more than twomillion cases and about 4,000 deaths in a population of 300 million.
“Ithink there were a variety of measures put in place by differentcountries, and it’s difficult to say what worked best and what didn’t,but China’s has worked very well, I think,” said Michael O’Leary, thedirector of the Beijing office of the World Health Organization.
Asof August, 56 million people had been screened for flulike symptoms atChina’s borders, said Feng Zijian, director of the emergency office ofthe Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Mr. Feng said hedid not know the number of travelers who had been quarantined. TheUnited States Embassy in Beijing said that 2,046 American citizens hadbeen quarantined by the end of October, with 215 of those testingpositive for H1N1.
“If these strict measures had not been taken,and if there had been a sudden outbreak of the disease, there wouldhave been a huge panic among the Chinese population,” Mr. Feng said.“Although there were many criticisms from outside, people shouldunderstand China’s considerations.”
But Mr. Feng and Dr. O’Learyalso say that the social and financial costs of China’s tough measureswill have to be evaluated to see whether they were worth the benefits.And it is unclear how decisive those actions were in slowing thetransmission of H1N1 — the summer heat in much of China was likely acritical factor in slowing the spread, and most schools were out ofsession at the time.
Furthermore, some foreign health officialssay China’s methods for detecting cases of H1N1 are not assophisticated as those in more developed countries, so the numbers inChina could well be significantly underreported.
Some foreignofficials are still skeptical of the need for the strict quarantinemeasures, saying that China should have re-evaluated its policies byJune, when it was apparent that the disease was not as lethal asinitially feared. The State Council, China’s cabinet, did not decide torelax the quarantine policy until July.
From the beginning, theW.H.O. has said that tightening borders would not keep the disease out,and that closing borders or automatically quarantining specific groupsof travelers — as China did for a brief period with holders of Mexicanpassports — would have no benefit.
Quarantines of entire schoolgroups from overseas ignited outrage in the home countries and led someAmerican officials to complain to the Chinese government. The StateDepartment implicitly criticized the Chinese policies by issuing travelwarnings on the quarantine procedures.
One of the most extremecases took place in July, when a group of 65 students and sevenchaperons from St. Mary’s School in Oregon was quarantined twice, oncein Beijing and once in Henan Province. The first time came after a girlpulled aside at the airport tested positive for H1N1. Then in Henan, aboy running a high feveralso tested positive, leading to a second quarantine session. Duringthat time, a dozen students tested positive for H1N1. Most of thestudents and chaperons flew back to the United States on July 31,having spent 12 of 17 days of their trip in quarantine.
“At thetime, it seemed extreme, and it seemed restrictive, because I had neverexperienced an infectious disease outbreak,” said Scott Dewing,director of technology at the school and one of the trip chaperons.
“Now,looking back and seeing some of the measures that are being taken nowin the U.S., the Chinese measures don’t seem so extreme.”
Chineseand Western officials say Chinese leaders put in place a comprehensiveplan for a pandemic outbreak after the disastrous experience of SARS.This includes, at least in the first stages, some of the stringentquarantine measures of the SARS era, but also emphasizes educating thepopulation about the disease: A red banner hanging from the balcony ofa rural school building here in Guangdong Province says: “H1N1 flu ispreventable, controllable and curable, and not terrifying.”
Thegovernment was so anxious to stay ahead of H1N1 that officials decidedin June to start developing a vaccine even though testing kits formeasuring the dosage of the agent in the experimental vaccines had notarrived from the W.H.O., said Zhao Kai, a virologist who advises thegovernment. It was an unusual step, but on Sept. 5 China became thefirst country to declare that it had discovered a vaccine, and by lateOctober it had produced nearly 53 million doses.
Li Bibo contributed research from Beijing. Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Hong Kong. |
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发表于 2009-11-12 07:23
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