The government and health authorities must be extra vigilant and make their work transparent in the fight against infectious diseases. This is the main theme of an editorial in Sing Pao Daily News published Tuesday, whose excerpts follow:

The Hospital Authority (HA) and the Center for Health Protection (CHP) have shown themselves to be somewhat sluggish when they failed to act until more than 10 days after a mysterious disease first appeared in Caritas Medical Center (CMC).

Drawing a lesson from the SARS epidemic, the government has adopted a series of measures, such as the setting-up of the CHP, to strengthen control over infectious diseases and to better coordinate such work. Yet, what has happened in CMC has shown that government efforts in this area have much room for improvement.

After the hospital found out about the mysterious virus, it took almost a week to report it to CHP. As HA's chief executive officer William Ho Siu-wai pointed out on Monday, it would have been better had the hospital notified CHP earlier so that they could discuss the cases together.

Furthermore, frontline medical workers have proved to be insufficiently vigilant in this episode.

Actually, the problem lies more with the infectious-disease notification mechanism. What kinds of symptoms and how many cases warrant a report to CHP? The authorities concerned must examine whether existing guidelines on when to make a report are clear and sufficient. Obviously, if the set conditions are too loose, what has happened in Caritas Hospital will recur.

When hospital managements fail to improvise and simply follow the guidelines, suspected cases would not be made known to CHP in time. On the other hand, if the conditions are too strict, there would be many false alarms that could cause panic.

We believe that the CHP will exercise its professional judgment in laying down balanced guidelines for notification of suspected cases. Yet, as we have entered the peak period of infectious diseases which have become increasingly widespread, the authorities concerned must be extremely vigilant and be willing to take the risk of erring on the side of safety. They ought to step up their efforts in tracking down viruses and improve communication on information about detected diseases. Resolute and effective action must be taken so that potential outbreaks could be nipped in the bud.

Moreover, medical authorities should increase the transparency of their work by updating the public on the latest developments on a daily basis.

(China Daily HK Edition November 17, 2004)