Chinese Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu has urged quick and resolute measures to prevent severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) from spreading in China's rural areas.
SARS control in rural areas was an important task confronting China, Hui told a meeting in Beijing attended by officials from the Ministry of Agriculture.
Hui said China's large rural population, with its relatively inferior medical facilities and weak disease-control awareness among farmers, had compounded the problem.
The most urgent task was to cut SARS spread by stopping returned laborers and students from carrying the disease to rural areas, he said.
Hui urged the establishment of a sound information network so that SARS cases in the rural areas could be spotted, reported, isolated and treated as soon as possible.
He also urged strengthening disinfections and quarantine work in marketplaces and other crowded places, and disseminating SARS prevention knowledge to the farmers.
(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2003)
