Vaccination drive to get shot in arm

Chinese health authorities plan to create a national influenza-monitoring system to contain the spread of the disease, which kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide every year, they said at the 2008 International Forum on Prevention and Control Policy of Flu in Beijing over the weekend.

The system would provide detailed information about the flu's spread and economic impacts in the country, Feng Zijian, director of the emergency response department of the China Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said.

"Once the system becomes operational, the government could make timely and appropriate responses to the health threat," he told China Daily.