China bids to stop Sars re-run

China was the country worst hit by the deadly virus

China plans to spend more than $1bn on increasing its healthcare in case of medical emergencies such as Sars, the state media said on Thursday.

A total of 11bn Yuan ($1.3bn) will be invested in new centres and hospitals for infectious diseases, the China Daily reported, in an effort to avoid a repeat of mistakes made during the Sars outbreak earlier this year.

It will take about three years to set up a system which is "multifunctional and responds swiftly to emergencies", said health ministry official Zhao Zilin, according to the newspaper.

When Sars [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome] hit China late last year, the country's healthcare system proved woefully inadequate.

Some hospitals were so poorly equipped that they became breeding grounds for the virus.

The new spending will try to cover up some of the gaps exposed by the Sars outbreak, the China Daily said.

China finally contained Sars in June

The current imbalance in funding between different areas of the country will be addressed, as will the methods of communication between health officials, the paper said.

"Hospitals and other treatment facilities should report cases of contagious illnesses to disease prevention and control centres, so that these centres can issue timely warnings," Wu Mingjiang, another health ministry official, was quoted as saying.

At the time of the Sars crisis, China was criticised both at home and abroad for trying to cover up the severity of the disease.

Fears of a comeback

Many Chinese are worried that Sars might return, as the weather turns colder.

Concern has heightened in recent days, after a 27-year-old researcher in Singapore was confirmed on Tuesday as having Sars - the first new case in five months - although the World Health Organization has yet to confirm the diagnosis.

China is determined not to be caught out again by the disease, and health workers have already been told to be on alert.

Temperature checks are still in place at airports, and local governments have been told to practice emergency measures, the People's Daily newspaper said.

Posters advertising how to prevent Sars are displayed prominently in department stores and at bus stops.

Sars emerged in south China's Guangdong province late last year, but quickly spread throughout China and across the globe.

Nearly 350 of the 900 people who died were from China.