A influenza A(H1N1) epidemic broke out in Mexico and America in the second half of April, 2009. Beijing Health Bureau, the local public health authority, places much store on the current epidemic, and has acted to prevent the terrible disease. The Bureau has convened relevant departments and experts to analyze relevant information, assess the potential influence of the epidemic, and devised the strategy and measures to respond to the epidemic. The Bureau has made an effort to strengthen the influenza monitoring work, conduct the influenza case monitoring in the second-tier medical institutions across the city, implement the infectious disease symptom monitoring in the medial institutions throughout the city, carry out the registration, reporting, investigation and sampling with respect to the pyrexia cases, organized the suspected case identification, and report the influenza-like patients to the disease control center within 2 hours if these patients are found to travel abroad or contact the disease. The Bureau will recently provide the medical staff of the medical institutions throughout the city with relevant trainings about the identification, diagnosis and treatment of the influenza A(H1N1), build up the medial treatment capacity, and actively reserve the antivirus drugs and emergency materials. At the same time, Beijing Health Bureau has joined hands with such authorities as the entry inspection & quarantine bureau to build the daily information reporting system, and launch the follow-up investigation on the inbound suspected cases in time. Beijing Health Bureau will pay close attention to the dynamics of the epidemic, and actively take relevant contingency plans according to the actual situation.

Relevant experts remind the citizens that the current influenza A(H1N1) epidemic in Mexico may deliver an influence on China, but the disease is preventable and controllable. Considering the disease mainly spreads through air and contact, experts suggest citizens open windows to ventilate, wash hands often, and avoid staying a long period in the poorly ventilated and crowded locations. All these are effective measures to reduce the probability of infection. At the same time, citizens should see a doctor in the case of a cold or pyrexia, and wear respirators to avoid spreading the disease to others.

April 29, 2009