The number of medical workers contracting SARS is falling gradually
in China, but the virus is likely to stay for some time, Chinese
medical experts said Saturday in Beijing.
Medical workers made up the largest proportion of clinically
confirmed SARS cases in the country, according to Xu Dezhong, an
epidemic analyst from the national SARS prevention team.
From Apr. 26 to May 15, medical staff accounted for 15.2 percent of
confirmed SARS cases, followed by workers at 10.7 percent, and then
students at 10.4 percent.
Xu
said international experience showed high rates of contagious
diseases spread via droplets among doctors and nurses.
Since early May, the number of SARS cases among medical staff had
continued to fall. Medical workers constituted 16.4 percent of the
total on the Chinese mainland in the first five days of the month,
12.9 percent in the second five days, and 7.1 percent in the third
five days, Xu said.
Meanwhile, the death toll of infected medical workers was very low,
accounting for 1.4 percent of the total on the mainland and just a
tenth of that of retirees and workers.
Xu
attributed the low death toll mainly to the relative youth of
medical staff and the benefits of early discovery, early diagnosis
and early treatment.
Xu
warned that the disease might continue and spread to other areas
for some time to come, despite the overall situation improving on a
fluctuating basis.
(People's Daily May 18, 2003)