Health Ministry Criticizes Hospitals Failing To Report Disease-Related Deaths

The Ministry of Health (MOH) issued a circular on August 8 announcing the results of an investigation that identified "gaps and omissions" in the online reporting of disease-related deaths, calling the lapses a "grave phenomenon." Investigators surveyed 130 medical facilities at the county-level and above in 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities. They found that 20 percent of the hospitals surveyed had failed to develop an online network for the reporting of disease-related deaths. The investigation also found that hospitals that had developed online reporting failed to report deaths more than 30 percent of the time. The MOH identified the lack of a unified nationwide reporting network as a major problem, and called for greater speed and accuracy among all medical facilities in the reporting of disease-related deaths.

The MOH issued Administrative Standards on the Reporting of Infectious Disease Information on May 29. The standards require that all medical facilities strengthen their systems for infectious disease diagnosis and reporting, train medical personnel in infectious disease reporting, and assist in infectious disease investigations. The standards also mandate prompt reporting of outbreaks and suspected cases of anthrax, contagious pneumonia, polio, human cases of avian flu, and other infectious diseases of unknown causes. Such outbreaks must be reported online within two hours of being discovered or, if no online reporting system has been put into place, reported to the county-level disease prevention and control organization.

Central government officials continue to express concern about slow, inaccurate local-level reporting of deaths caused by infectious diseases. The MOH issued a circular on March 20 that warned authorities that cover-ups or delays in reporting potential cases of human avian flu infection could risk spreading the disease. The circular stated that some medical facilities had not promptly reported on "pneumonia cases with unknown causes," and that some local health departments failed to promptly organize supervision and inspection into these cases. On August 8, the MOH confirmed that avian flu, not severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), had caused the November 2003 death of a 24-year old man in Beijing, placing China’s first human infection of avian flu two years earlier than previously identified, according to an August 9 Wall Street Journal article (subscription required).

A World Health Organization official has also expressed concern about the Chinese government’s practice of reporting only confirmed cases of avian flu among humans and urged the Chinese government to act with greater transparency, according to a March 24 Wall Street Journal report (subscription required). For more information on central and local government efforts to improve transparency in responding to avian flu, see the CECC’s February 2006 roundtable on China's Response to Avian Flu: Steps Taken, Challenges Remaining.