SZ launches disease alert system

Writer: Zhang Yu  |  Editor: Holly Wang  |  From: Shen zhen Daily  |  Updated: 2020-09-24

The warning system forecasts that the risk of getting infected by influenza between Wednesday and Tuesday is low by providing a green code of the disease. Courtesy of Shenzhen Municipal Health Commission

Checking the weather report before going to work or school may be a daily routine for many. Shenzhen residents now have a disease forecast to look at to stay well-informed of potential health hazards.

The city officially launched a disease alert system yesterday, which enables citizens to keep abreast of the risk levels of seven kinds of diseases by following the WeChat and Weibo accounts of the Shenzhen Municipal Health Commission and the Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention.王晧岚

The disease risk forecast covers seven categories of diseases, including influenza, hand, foot and mouth disease, dengue fever, norovirus infections, bacterial infections, avian influenza infecting humans and mushroom poisoning.

Like the four-tiered color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue, the disease alert system is three-tiered and color-coded, with high, medium and low levels corresponding colors of red, yellow and green.

Each week, the health authorities will issue the disease risk forecast for the next week, providing health reminders for the risk levels of seven kinds of diseases online and offline through posters and short videos.

For instance, citizens are advised against going to crowded places if a red alert for influenza is issued.

When a yellow alert for hand, foot and mouth disease is issued, nurseries, kindergartens, schools and other institutions should strictly implement prevention and control measures such as a morning check, daily disinfection and epidemic situation report, and isolation of cases. Meanwhile, school-age children should be vaccinated with EV71 vaccines.

The health authorities will also highlight the health risks for key groups and places for disease prevention and control.

The high-risk groups of influenza infection are children, pregnant women, the elderly and patients with chronic diseases, while the group at high risk for hand, foot and mouth disease is children under 5 years old.

Taking dengue fever as an example, construction sites, urban villages, wholesale flower markets, old and densely populated residential estates, and schools are the prime places for dengue fever prevention and control.

Based on the data collected by a specific disease monitoring network, Shenzhen has started to issue the risk index for specific diseases including influenza, dengue fever and hand, foot and mouth disease to the public since March 2015.