This is NEWS Plus Special English.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission has issued a manual on Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, for health departments and hospitals.
It contains a detailed introduction to the history of the disease, its symptoms, laboratory testing, preventative measures, treatment and care.
Control measures at hospitals will be heightened and patients complaining of fever will be screened.
The organization has promised to keep the public well informed and give timely warnings.
China reported its first MERS patient a week ago in Guangdong Province, southern China. It is a traveler from South Korea.
MERS is a respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus, similar to Sever Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. The first human case emerged in Saudi Arabia in 2012. It has a fatality rate of 40 percent.
There is no effective treatment for MERS and medical care just focuses on alleviating the symptoms.
According to the manual, person-to-person transmission of MERS is limited.
Now the news continues.
Chinese scientists and the European Space Agency have decided that their joint space satellite program will focus on an X-ray imaging satellite to study the Earth's magnetosphere.
The project, known as SMILE, was selected from 13 proposals and is due to launch in 2021. It will study the effects of the Sun on the Earth's environment. The study aims at creating images of the interactions between solar winds and the Earth's magnetosphere with innovative X-ray and ultraviolet technology.
Previously, the European Space Agency contributed to China's Double Star, similar satellite mission launched in 2003 to focus on the impact of the Sun on the Earth's environment.
SMILE will be the first comprehensive collaboration between China and the European Space Agency with joint efforts in definition, implementation and data utilization. The next step will be a project feasibility study.
