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Original title: Video | Ask China | How to build a public health system in the post-epidemic era?
The Two National Sessions in 2021 will be held as scheduled, which is also strong evidence that China has achieved important strategic results in epidemic prevention and control. In this year’s government work report, “improving large-scale nucleic acid testing capabilities”, “advancing the orderly development of vaccines and free vaccination,” and other public concern issues have been mentioned many times. new corona epidemic. The representatives and members of the two sessions also offered suggestions and suggestions on how to consolidate the network for the protection of public health in my country.
At present, the new corona epidemic is still spreading around the world, how should China respond? What are the shortcomings of our public health system? In response to these issues, check out the special report from the two Knews sessions. “Ask China” invited Zeng Guang, former epidemiology expert at the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Feng Luzhao, Executive Vice President of the Faculty of Medicine and Public Health of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the Peking Union Medical College.
The long-term existence of a new coronary pneumonia requires a good response
Recently, the CDC Weekly reported that there are still many uncertain factors in 2021, one of which is that new coronary pneumonia may become a long-term infectious disease globally or in local areas. Although we have developed a vaccine, there are still many uncertainties in the epidemic.
Zeng Guang agreed with this judgment. In his opinion, even if humans are vaccinated with the new corona virus, the new corona virus will still exist. Its epidemic is only blocked, and it does not mean that the virus has been completely eliminated. Therefore, it is not appropriate to make a judgment that “the epidemic is completely controlled.”
In the long-term coexistence with the new coronavirus, sporadic cases of new coronary pneumonia will continue to appear, but the probability of a large-scale epidemic is reduced, and critically ill patients and deaths will be greatly reduced. According to Feng Luzhao, human beings may not be able to fully return to the state before the new corona epidemic, but we can establish new normalized protection habits, such as maintaining good personal protection and hygiene habits for a long time, correctly understanding the role of vaccines and active vaccination of vaccines, etc.
Even if humans have achieved universal vaccination of the new coronavirus vaccine, it is necessary to pay close attention to the mutation of the new coronavirus to see which mutations will affect the effect of the vaccine, in order to make the corresponding adjustments. Feng Luzhao also pointed out that even if humans obtain herd immunity, the public health agencies of several countries must maintain non-pharmaceutical intervention measures against the epidemic, that is, the prevention and social control measures that we have been implementing, so that the New corona epidemic will not rebound everywhere nor will it run into medical treatment. Healthcare system.
Local epidemics expose the weak links in my country’s public health system
Although the prevention and control of the epidemic in my country has achieved important strategic results, the prevention and control of the epidemic over the past year has also exposed many deficiencies in my country’s public health system.
Earlier this year, confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia and asymptomatic infections occurred in several villages in Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang, Hebei. Many of them have participated in wedding receptions, funerals, meetings, dinners and other activities. The characteristics of clustered epidemics are obvious. It is worth noting that many of the early cases took their own medication or went to the village clinic for easy diagnosis and treatment, so the epidemic was not detected as soon as possible and the virus secretly spread in areas. rural for a period. of time.
Zeng Guang believes that the epidemic in Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang, is representative and reflects the weak links in my country’s rural-based prevention and control. For example, there is an obvious shortage of epidemic prevention personnel in vast rural areas, and the response and notification of the epidemic is not sensitive enough. In this regard, Feng Luzhao believes that primary health care centers should strengthen their capacities for detection, testing and initial treatment of infectious diseases, and it is especially necessary to strengthen the construction of fever clinics and isolation wards, as the first line of defending. for the prevention and control of infectious diseases.
Building a well-off society in an integral way is inseparable from building healthy towns. Feng Luzhao said that currently, some cities in my country have formed a model of a “medical consortium” of tertiary hospitals versus secondary and community hospitals. This model can also be extended to rural primary medical institutions to advance the prevention barrier.
Zeng Guang pointed out that the business-oriented relationship of our current health prevention and control system is not as close as in the 1960s and 1970s. In the work of epidemic prevention and public health, whether it is the treatment of local CDC health and primary medical departments, o The infectious disease departments of large hospitals, infectious disease specialty hospitals, and technical guidance for community health and epidemic prevention work need to be further strengthened.
Stable investment in public health contributed to building a healthy China
In the “Draft” of the “XIV Five-Year Plan”, “promoting building a healthy China comprehensively” is one of the main indicators. Among them, building a public health system has become the focus of the plan. In this year’s government work report, arrangements were also made for innovative coordination mechanisms for medical prevention and the establishment of a stable investment mechanism for public health companies. Based on this, some representatives suggested that the share of investment in public health in GDP should be stabilized.
According to data from the National Research Center for Health Development of the National Health Commission, in 2017 the national fiscal investment in public health of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) represented an average of 0.26% of GDP . Of the same caliber, my country’s fiscal investment in public health represented 0.19% of GDP in 2017. This also shows that, although my country’s total investment in public health is absolutely large, there is still a certain gap since a global perspective.
Currently, the laws and regulations of my country do not specify a clear proportion of investment in public health. However, in the field of education, the relevant policies stipulate that national financial investment in education should not be less than 4% of total GDP. Feng Luzhao said that stabilizing the share of public health investment in GDP should not be a temporary necessity to deal with the epidemic, but the health industry should be treated as an important industry. If a standard for basic investment in public health can be determined, there will be good long-term benefits.
However, it should also be noted that investment in public health is a long-term effect, which is different from investment that can be effective in the short term. Whether it is government investments or ordinary people, they must have full confidence and patience in public health reform.
(Look at Knews editor Yang Longyue, Yang Zhen Fang Feifei)
Copyright Statement: This article is an exclusive Knews article and may not be reproduced without permission.
