The Italian government has helped China train 500 local health and government officials in northwest China over the past six months to improve their ability to handle public health emergencies like SARS.

The joint program has given eight courses to mayors, county heads, hospital presidents and directors of local disease control and prevention centers in China's Shaanxi and Gansu provinces and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Pasqualino Procacci, director of cooperation under the Italian Embassy in China, said in Beijing Monday at an international forum on SARS control and prevention.

Xu Dezhong, an epidemiology professor who attended the program, said it taught local officials how to handle public health emergencies properly and introduced basic theories of epidemiology, laws and regulations, mechanisms of epidemic surveillance and reporting, and SARS sample collecting, verification and transportation.

Xu said the program especially offered local policy-makers courses discussing the government's roles and responsibilities in public health emergencies and the relations between public health and social economic development.

"The program not only helped improve their abilities, but also promoted understanding between policy-makers and health workers so that communication and coordination could be easier in future," said Fang Suzhen, deputy director of the human resource development center of the Chinese Ministry of Health.

The Italian government also donated 14 ambulances to health institutions in Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia.

Procacci said the Italian government invited experts to evaluate the program since the first phase of was coming to an end.

He said the Italian government was discussing with Chinese officials a new project with an investment of 20 million euros to provide technical and training support for China's Jiangxi and Guizhou provinces and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region to help promote the health care systems in the three regions.

(Xinhua News Agency December 15, 2003)