Online report of epidemic situation of infectious disease realized

China has abandoned its old reporting procedure for epidemic situation,. i.e., report of epidemic situation by administrative organs level by level on a monthly basis as from April 1. Instead, the medical institutions will report the epidemic situation online directly.

China has abandoned its old reporting procedure for epidemic situation,. i.e., report of epidemic situation by administrative organs level by level on a monthly basis as from April 1. Instead, the medical institutions will report the epidemic situation online directly. China has abandoned its old reporting procedure for epidemic situation,. i.e., report of epidemic situation by administrative organs level by level on a monthly basis as from April 1. Instead, the medical institutions will report the epidemic situation online directly. After three months’ trial operation and improvement, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s online report system for epidemic situation has been adopted by all disease control organs over county level and medical institutions, thus the online report of epidemic situation in China is enabled. As is shown in the epidemic report for the infectious disease on Apr 1, during the period between zero hours and 24 hours on March 31, all 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under central government had submitted epidemic reports. Of the 27 types of infectious diseases which are requested to be reported by law, pestis, cholera, poliomyelitis, diphtheria, dengue fever and SARS were not reported. The top five diseases reported are: TB, hepatitis B, diarrhea, gonorrhea, and hepatitis A. The occurrence rate of report failure, or incomplete report has dropped from 16.4 percent in January to the current 2.8 percent. The report span has decreased from an average of five days to 1.4 days, statistics show. The change of the reporting procedure in China greatly enhances punctuality and accuracy of epidemic report, and therefore helps control the outbreak of infectious diseases, says Qi Xiaoqiu, Director of Disease Control Department, the Ministry of Public Health. (Source: People’s Daily Online, April 2004)