Health workers will soon be using a computer package to view the movements of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) patients on Beijing's streets and to identify other people who may have had potentially lethal contact with the carriers.

With the system, the spread of the SARS virus can be effectively mapped, according to Liu Jiyuan, president of the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"The computerized tool will allow the health situation to be analyzed and monitored," Liu told China Daily Monday.

"An evaluation of the effectiveness of intervention, which is required for the decision-making and the planning of the continued fight against SARS, can then be made."

Health workers will get information from SARS patients and people suspected of having the virus, said Zhuang Dafang, a professor with Liu's institute.

The details -- such as a person's residential area, where they work and visit and who their friends are -- will be put into a database and after a few clicks of a mouse button, health workers will be able to highlight the areas that are considered most dangerous.

The information will strengthen the capacity for epidemiological analysis and the forecasting of potential exposure, Liu said.

The data can easily be sent to the Beijing Centre for Disease Control and Prevention to get an up to date picture of SARS in Beijing, the hardest hit area on the mainland.

The institute agreed at the weekend to provide the centre with the computer package by Saturday.

The technology is expected to be in use by May 20, after enough people are trained to use the system and it is tested.

Zeng Guang, a leading researcher at the disease control and prevention centre, said he hopes the system will be widely used throughout China in the near future.

"The technology is there for the system to be used on a national level," Zhuang said.

(China Daily May 6, 2003)