The current nationwide patriotic public health campaign should
center on the prevention and treatment of Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome (SARS), said Vice Premier Wu Yi in Beijing on Thursday.
Wu
made the remarks in a national teleconference on the patriotic
public health campaign aimed at pushing forward disease prevention
work.
Wu, also the director of the National Committee for the Patriotic
Public Health Campaign, noted that the public health campaign is an
efficient way for the general public to improve the environment,
combat disease and fight unsanitary conditions.
She asked all localities, departments and organizations to give top
priority to SARS prevention and treatment work. She appealed to
them to educate, organize and encourage the general public in order
to create an effective public network for SARS prevention and
treatment work with the aim of containing the spread of the disease
and curbing the number of new cases.
Wu
noted that people affiliated with government departments, armies,
schools, organizations, communities and villages should be
organized to improve indoor and outdoor sanitation so as to prevent
the outbreak and spread of the disease.
Special attention should also be paid to SARS prevention work in
western and central China and in rural areas, said Wu, adding that
various effective measures must be taken to strictly contain the
spread of SARS to western and central China and to rural areas.
Wu
Yi stressed that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of
China (CPC) and the State Council have attached great importance to
the work of SARS prevention and treatment, and have implemented a
series of key policies and deployment actions.
She also noted that work requirements have all been clarified and
that the implementation of the requirements is now the key issue.
Wu urged all grassroots units and all citizens to adopt responsible
attitudes with regard to themselves, their families, society and
the country.
Wu
asked law enforcement departments to strengthen prevention work and
to maintain optimal market order. In order to ensure a clear
understanding of the facts and to keep social stability, rumors
should be unmasked, she said.
The teleconference was presided over by Xu Shaoshi, deputy director
of the National Committee for the Patriotic Public Health Campaign,
and was attended by leaders of all provincial, regional and
municipal governments.
(Xinhua News Agency April 25, 2003)