China's meteorologists and health workers are to cooperate in
climate-related public health emergencies such as heat stroke,
dehydration and carbon monoxide poisoning.?
On Wednesday the Ministry of Health and the China Meteorological
Administration (CMA) signed an agreement to construct a cooperative
mechanism to improve public health systems.
Meteorologists will monitor climate changes which could trigger
public health emergencies, share the information with health
workers and issue public warnings through the media.
CMA Director Qi Dahe said at the signing ceremony that his
administration would speed up the establishment of a "real time"
public health and meteorological warning system. The cooperative
arrangement with the Ministry of Health showed that public health
meteorology had entered a new phase, he observed.
Meteorologists and health workers will also study the
relationship between climate and outbreaks of diseases such as bird
flu and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
The SARS outbreak in 2003 revealed inadequacies in the public
health system and it was imperative for improvements to be made,
said Vice Minister of Health Wang Longde.
Climate changes triggered several mass carbon monoxide poisoning
incidents in Anhui, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces between February 13-15
this year leaving 477 ill and 31 dead.?
(Xinhua News Agency July 13, 2003)