Shi Xiaoming, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, proposed: Strengthening the construction of the national disinfection work system

Premier Li Keqiang pointed out in the government work report on the 5th that in response to changes in the epidemic situation, we have timely adjusted prevention and control strategies, improved normalized prevention and control mechanisms, effectively dealt with clusters of epidemics in local areas, and protected people's lives and health to the greatest extent. Create necessary conditions for restoring production and living order.

In epidemic prevention and control, disinfection comes first. This year’s two sessions, Shi Xiaoming, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and director of the Institute of Environmental and Health-Related Product Safety at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, submitted a proposal on strengthening the construction of a national disinfection work system. Shi Xiaoming emphasized that disinfection is an effective means of preventing and controlling infectious diseases and emergency response to sudden natural disasters, and is a powerful guarantee to ensure that "there will be no major epidemics after major disasters."

Shi Xiaoming said that in the prevention and control of the new coronavirus epidemic, front-line anti-epidemic personnel adhere to "scientific disinfection and precise protection", effectively carry out disinfection of epidemic sources such as isolation wards and preventive disinfection of key places such as transportation, and actively promote hand hygiene. It plays a key role in effectively cutting off the transmission of the virus and ensuring the normal operation of society, economy and life.

In addition, in recent times, the development of disinfection and effect evaluation, and research and development of low-temperature disinfectants in key areas such as rural areas and farmers' markets have effectively solved emerging technical problems in epidemic prevention and control. In daily life, cleaning and disinfection continue to play a role in special places such as medical institutions, public places such as hotels, restaurants, and barber shops, and key places such as elderly care institutions, child care institutions, and primary and secondary schools, and have become an important guarantee for the public's healthy life.

However, as society's demand for disinfection gradually increases, the shortcomings of disinfection work have become increasingly prominent. In this regard, Shi Xiaoming pointed out that there are currently four shortcomings that restrict the development of disinfection work.

First, the disinfection professional team system is imperfect and the number of professionals is insufficient. Generally speaking, our country's current disinfection work system is not complete. According to data, the proportions of professional disinfection teams in provincial, municipal, and county disease control institutions are 78%, 55%, and 32% respectively. Especially at the county level, there are basically few dedicated disinfection teams. Therefore, when an epidemic occurs in rural areas, it is difficult to carry out disinfection work in a timely manner.

Second, the services of social service agencies for disinfection are not standardized enough, and there is no supporting policy for the qualification certification of “disinfectants”. Since the outbreak of the new coronavirus, a large number of temporary disinfection service agencies have sprung up in many places. However, these disinfection service agencies used to deal with insecticides and rodent control, and lacked understanding of disinfection knowledge, theory and skills. Therefore, the quality of disinfection is not very good and may be unscientific or substandard. In addition, "disinfector" is a new occupation released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, but there are currently no supporting documents related to occupational identification and training.

Third, there are hidden dangers in existing disinfection-related products and business management. The quality of disinfection products in society and third-party testing and evaluation institutions are uneven, and the industry regulatory agencies are insufficient, which seriously affects the quality of disinfection products.

Fourth, there is a lack of financial support for research on key disinfection technologies. For a long time, my country’s disinfection technology research has mainly relied on the country’s very small public health finance.