In the past few days, news media have alarmed the public with reports about an "odd disease" that has occurred in part of Sichuan Province, southwest China, causing two dozens deaths among locals there.

Experts have found the source of the disease to be a strain of swine streptococcus.

Though it reminds people of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), few see it a possible come-back of the epidemic that horrified the whole country and brought about a panic in the rest of the world in the year of 2003.

The government and the public have proved to be more cool-headed and able in dealing with the current disease, thanks to the setting up in 2004 of a mechanism for handling public health emergencies.

With the new mechanism in place, the country has succeeded in fighting the occurrence of a series of epidemics including plague spot in Qinghai Province, west China, and bird flue in the Qinghai and Guangxi areas.

In these cases, the government has tried hard to keep the public well informed about the developments of the efforts to fight the epidemics. An official information network keeps monitoring the situation, while 10 national emergency medical teams are well prepared and ready to rush to the rescue.

"These new measures indicate that the government has made remarkable progress in emergency management after SARS," says Xue Lan, a professor from Tsinghua University. "China has entered into a new stage in this field."

The government has listed emergency management as one of its main jobs, in the hope of minimizing losses caused by emergencies in public health and other sectors.

At a national working conference on emergency management, business leaders from highly-dangerous industries and experts were invited to join in talks with government officials.

In his address at the meeting, Premier Wen Jiabao called emergency management an important assurance for safeguarding national security, social stability and people's interests, noting that it is a major part of government function, social management and public service.

Currently, large cities have established their own emergency management systems. Red, orange, yellow and blue colors have been adopted to classify the danger of an imminent emergency.

Local governments, who have to report to the central government within four days after the occurrence of an emergency, have a right to declare an "emergency state" regulated by the law.

"Some long-time problems have emerged when the government is building up an emergency management system," says Liu Tiemin, president of the national academy on the science and research of safe production.

Liu says that it is hard to resolve problems such as the lack of relevant legal bases, decentralization of the abilities to handle emergencies, the weakness of the relevant applicable technologies, and lack of public health knowledge in the populace.

Furthermore, there is a lack of coordination among different emergency departments and between the government and the public, says Shen Ronghua, a researcher and director of the center on the study of public management under the China Society of Administrative Management.

According to official statistics, over the past decade, calamities, accidents and epidemics have caused over 200,000 deaths and 2 million injuries every year on average. In 2004, 5.61 million accidents took place across the country, leaving 210,000 deaths and 1.75 million injuries.

Following the recent terror attacks in London and Egypt, China has more pressing things to do as its capital city of Beijing is going to host the 2008 Olympic Games.

Last March, 454 national legislators handed over 14 proposals on the Law on Emergency State and relevant laws at the Second Session of the National People's Congress (NPC). The Law on Emergency State has been listed as one of the laws to be stipulated this year.

(Xinhua News Agency July 29, 2005)