Hospitals in Beijing saw a dramatic decrease in the number of outpatients suffering from coughing and sneezing the day after snow showered the capital with much needed moisture.

According to some news reports, there was relief in the public health sphere that another wave of influenza had finally ended. The latest influenza seems to last longer than the conventional seven days, with many of the casualties still suffering from slight headache or cough.

I myself was one of the casualties, sustaining the longest fever (two days) that I have had since my teenage years. I caught the virus from my daughter, who in turn had caught it from a classmate.

"She was just sitting behind me, coughing, sneezing and blowing out heat and virus right into my neck," my daughter complained, while lying in bed with a fever.

I was speechless when I heard this. I believe SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), which wrecked havoc in China in the early part of 2003 , left us with enough hard lessons.

One of them was that individuals should be responsible not only for their own health but for others as well. My daughter's classmate should have the consciousness to refrain from going to school while running a fever.

Obviously a good warning from SARS has not been heeded.

It is not that SARS is forgotten. In fact, when I went to the China-Japan Friendship Hospital one early morning last week, the hospital staff directed me to the special emergency service for patients with fever.

The area enjoys good ventilation and the staff there was quick to make diagnoses and offer treatment, well away from people arriving with other problems.

My daughter's classmate may have had good excuses, as she, like the rest of her classmates, is now busy preparing for this year's national college entrance examinations. She probably did not want to lose a single day's work lest she lag behind others.

But schools remain a breeding ground for communicable diseases. During the wave of influenza in the last week of December, it was said that some classes in suburban schools had to close because too many students were sick.

The attendance of my daughter's classmate while running a fever leaves enough loopholes that may grow into severe health risks if a more serious pandemic, such as SARS, hits schools first.

Recalling the days when SARS was raging in Beijing, luck seemed to be standing by schools where there were no SARS outbreak.

But next time, schools may not have the same luck. So I believe that public health institutions, education bureaus and school administrations should stop overlooking such communicable diseases as colds or influenza.

They should continue the good practice that was common during the SARS period that no student with fever was allowed into the school ground. That will not only benefit more students but also benefit the few students who are barred from entry because of fever.