Problems and difficulties of early warning and response system for public health emergencies in China / 中国血吸虫病防治杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study current situation and existed problems in the public health emergency alert and response system so as to formulate more advices to consummate it and help to establish a more reasonable system adapting to our country. Methods A qualitative study was carried out among CDC working staff including two focus group discussions(FGD). Results Although government had put more emphasis on public health,increasing its devotion and strengthening the alert and response capability after SARS outbreak, some problems still existed, such as ① absence of correlative laws and rules; ② lack of government devotion; ③ insufficient utilization of surveillance information; ④ lack of the canonical response guidance. Conclusions With regard to the building up of the public health emergency alert and response system, the following proposals are put forward: increasing payout on public health; consummating the construction of disease surveillance network; affording more education and training to correlative staff engaged in the disease control to improve their abilities.