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Warm weather brings on flu, fire warnings
By Jiang Zhuqing (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-11-25 05:50
Weather experts are warning people about respiratory diseases and potential
hazards like fires, as the warmer-than-ever weather in most parts of the nation
is predicted to linger for another 10 days or so.
"Though a mild cold air coming from Northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region will sweep the nation from north to south early next week, the warm and
damp atmosphere would not bring too much precipitation," Yang Guiming, a senior
expert with the National Meteorological Centre, told China Daily yesterday.
The average temperature in November this year is higher than that of previous
years, said Yang, adding that it is still too early to draw a conclusion that a
"warm winter" is inevitable.
The comparatively dry atmosphere, higher temperatures as well as less
precipitation in most regions will increase the risk of respiratory diseases as
well as fires and other hazards, said the meteorologist.
Influenced by bird flu, warm weather and a possible outbreak, there has
already been a ready market for flu vaccines in some places, reports said.
During the past two months, more than 700,000 people in Beijing have been
inoculated with flu vaccines, an official with the Beijing Centre for Disease
Control and Prevention said.
"Vaccine inoculation is one of the most effective ways to prevent flu," said
Ding, a doctor in charge of a flu prevention hotline in North China's Hebei
Province.
He told reporters that more than 150,000 flu vaccines have been used in
Shijiazhuang, capital of the province. But the number is still small when
compared with the city's population of 10 million.
In East China's Shandong Province, the Provincial Centre for Disease Control
and Prevention said nearly all the 200,000 flu vaccines (mainly imported)
prepared by the centre have been used, reported the Dazhong Daily on its
website.
"It is hard for the flu vaccine producers abroad to produce more vaccines
during a short period of time because the production plan had been drafted one
year ago," said Yang Guohua, an official with the centre.
To resolve the problem, Shandong Province has decided to purchase more
vaccines made by domestic producers to meet the increasing demand, said the
official.
(China Daily 11/25/2005 page2)
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