H1N1 flu now ranks as China’s top health issue with 200 to 400 new cases reported daily. Moreover, cases are now spreading from cities to rural areas, according to Liang Wannian, Deputy Director of the Emergency Office of China’s Ministry of Health.
Each day now, the cases reported in rural areas reach the level of what was reported in the past over a ten-day period, according to Zeng Guang, head of epidemiology for China’s Center for Disease Control.
Authorities are concerned that rural areas lack the necessary resources to deal with the growing epidemic. Rural areas often have insufficient medical resources. Programs for disease prevention and control are lacking, and staff members in these areas are often inexperienced.
“China will have tens of millions of people infected, and there will be several million people seeking medical services. With the inevitability of critical illness and mortality, China’s prevention and control work is facing an enormous challenge,” Liang said.
Authorities predict the rate of infections will soon rise even more quickly in China. There were 207 cases reported in late June, and 188 in August, but from Aug. 24 to Sept. 10, 3,696 new cases were reported.
Liang believes that as fall and winter approach, students will spend more time indoors, making them more susceptible to contracting H1N1, according to a Caijing.com.cn report on Sept. 12.
Since September, various Chinese universities and colleges have already reported new cases of H1N1. Cases related to schools and student life now account for 86.5 percent of all cases. “The increasing number of cases at schools is only a signal, marking that the “second wave” of the epidemic has began,” Zeng told the People’s Daily.
The rate of H1N1 infections has surpassed the seasonal flu by four times, according to estimates by experts. A serology survey found that an overwhelming majority of the Chinese population is at risk, and there are many people at high-risk. Critical cases have already appeared in Guangdong, Shanghai and Zhejiang.
Currently, a total of 6,968 cases have been reported from 31 provinces.
Read the original Chinese article.
