Regulation calls for improving risk evaluations of disease outbreaks

The National Administration of Disease Prevention and Control on Friday released a regulation aimed at improving the evaluations of the risks associated with infectious disease outbreaks.

The document said that disease control authorities at various levels of government should work with authorities in health, agriculture, forestry and grassland, education, customs, transportation, market regulations and meteorological departments to regularly share information related to potential outbreaks and jointly carry out risk assessments.

It added that national and provincial-level disease control authorities should gather experts in a range of fields, including preventive medicine, clinical medicine, biosecurity, emergency management, communication and economics to form a panel to carry out risk assessments of epidemics.

Performing risk evaluations is key to enhancing the nation's ability to monitor and issue early warnings of infectious diseases and to resolve major public health hazards, the administration said.

It said that national and provincial-level disease control bodies should conduct weekly risk assessments, while municipal and county-level facilities should perform evaluations monthly.

Specialized risk evaluations should be made on occasions such as when a novel and acute infectious disease emerges, when an infectious illness is imported from overseas for the first time and causes domestic transmission, or when the incidence or mortality rate of a virus shows an abnormal pattern.