BEIJING, Dec. 8 -- Shanghai's Ruijin Hospital said yesterday that it is going to set up a research program on early screening of respiratory tract viruses, such as bird flu and severe acute respiratory syndrome, to learn how to detect diseases and provide effective treatment earlier.

¡¡¡¡Medical experts said people with a respiratory infection are more likely to go to comprehensive hospitals than special infectious disease hospitals.

    "For the eight SARS patients in the city during the outbreak in 2003, four of them went to Ruijin at first," said Ning Guang, Ruijin's vice president. "So our respiratory disease and infectious disease departments launched this project to enhance ability to screen patients, provide early treatment, and prevent in-hospital infection."

    The research will focus on bird flu to begin with.

    Seventy-eight of the 132 people infected with bird flu around the world have died.

    Ruijin's Dr Lu Zhimeng said though there is no evidence the disease can spread from human to human, the risk of a global epidemic is still there.     

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)