Beijing municipal government came up with a 2.98 million yuan special fund for vaccinating migrant workers in Beijing. In the following month, 800,000 migrant workers will be offered vaccines for measles and epidemic meningitis prevention free of charge.

On Tuesday afternoon, migrant workers queued at the construction site of the Huang'an Building near Anzhen Bridge of Beijing. Doctors from Dongcheng District Disease Prevention and Control Center were giving inoculations against epidemic meningitis to migrant workers free of charge. Meanwhile officials from Beijing municipal government carried out fieldwork at the site.

As is well known, there is a huge floating population in Beijing and in recent years, every period of high-infection, migrant workers catch and spread disease, like measles and epidemic meningitis. In order to prevent these infectious diseases, Beijing municipal government allocated in particular a large sum to fund migrant worker inoculation, especially for those working on construction sites as well as in factories and enterprises. Last week, sanitation doctors at all Beijing hospitals in every district and county began to organize and carry out visits to migrant workers for the purpose of inoculation. In addition, all costs are being absorbed by the state.

Migrant workers are benefiting greatly from Beijing municipal government’s health protection policy. This is the first time this has happened in the capital.

The vaccination of migrant workers has begun at nearly all large construction sites in Beijing. The workers are first grouped together to have epidemic meningitis vaccinations and given a vaccination certificate. Two weeks later, they will get a measles vaccine.

The vaccination program for migrant workers should be completed by January 15 next year.

(China.org.cn by Wang Ruyue and Daragh Moller, December 26, 2003)