The ministries of Health and Finance launched the SARS and Infectious Disease Response Program jointly with the World Bank here Monday.

The program focused on addressing SARS diagnosis, clinical management, and infection control needs "in the event that there is a future re-emergence of the disease", said a health ministry official.

The two-year program also aimed to strengthen the public healthsystem's capacity to handle infectious disease prevention and control through improved surveillance and reporting systems, and to set up alert and response mechanisms to address public health crises.

The World Bank loan and the 10-million-dollar fund donated by Britain, Canada and Japan would be allocated to eight Chinese regions most seriously hit by severe acute respiratory syndrome: Shanxi, Guangdong, Hebei, Guangxi and Henan Provinces, Beijing andTianjin municipalities and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Wang Longde, vice health minister, said the program would be implemented in line with the nation's "post-SARS strategies", which included establishing a response mechanism for public healthemergencies, improving information-collecting and disease-control systems.

With the assistance of the international community, China wouldconduct further research on the origin of the SARS virus, its epidemiological pattern and clinical treatment, Wang said.

The Chinese mainland has recorded 5,326 SARS cases, including 347 fatalities. The Health Ministry reported Monday that 23 SARS patients were still hospitalized in Beijing and two remained suspect cases in Guangdong.

(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2003)