A senior World Health Organization (WHO) official told a press
briefing in Beijing Thursday that SARS-related information offered
by China was "informative and complete".
The useful information on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
offered by China during his two-day tour reflected China's efforts
in controlling the disease, Dr. David Heymann, WHO executive
director for communicable diseases, said at the joint press
briefing hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Health and WHO.
Five SARS-hit Chinese provincial regions briefed Heymann on their
SARS situation in detail on Wednesday.
The WHO official attributed the rapid decrease of SARS cases on the
Chinese mainland to the "massive efforts in mobilizing the whole
population".
He
said the shorter time for the identification of SARS patients, and
quick tracing and surveillance activities led to the rapid decrease
of SARS cases on the Chinese mainland.
In
some provinces, Heymann said, the time for identifying a SARS
patient from the onset of symptoms had decreased from four days to
one day.
Heymann said his visit to China was not an "inspection tour" but
rather a visit for exchanging views with China on the SARS
situation and to assess where China needed more support from the
WHO.
"There's much more remains to be done," Heymann said. The WHO hoped
to "constantly obtain data from China," he said.
China's case definition "compatible" with WHO's
China's SARS case definition is "compatible" with that of WHO, said
Heymann, adding that China's SARS case definition is "more
sensitive", resulting in more suspected SARS cases.
He
noted that the eventual goal was still to set up a standard SARS
case definition worldwide, added Heymann.
Gao Qiang, executive vice-minister of health, said that it was
difficult to rely only on case definitions to diagnose SARS
patients because of the incomplete understanding of the epidemic
disease.
He
acknowledged that it was imperative to develop a test kit for a
more accurate diagnosis.
WHO assessment on China's anti-SARS efforts "positive,
objective, fair"
WHO has given a "positive, objective and fair" assessment of
China's anti-SARS efforts, Gao said.
Gao said that he had had a comprehensive and thorough conversation
on SARS control with Heymann.
Gao said he had discussed with Dr. Heymann the measures to prevent
a reoccurrence of SARS, and methods to improve China's prevention
and treatment system for communicable diseases.
During the conversation, Gao expressed his thanks to the WHO for
its help in China's battle against SARS, saying that his country
will work in cooperation with the WHO in other areas in addition to
SARS control.
China expects to cooperate with the WHO on a still broader and
deeper level in the hope of improving its public health system,
building up a sound public health system in rural areas, and
training more qualified medical workers, Gao said.
Lifting of travel advisory to be decided by WHO
director-general
Heymann said that decisions on whether to lift SARS travel
advisories would be decided by WHO Director General Gro Harlem
Brundtland according to preset standards.
Heymann said that the lifting of advisories was dependent on the
number of active SARS case in certain areas, the number of new
cases reported each day in an area, and the number of cases
exported from one place to another.
He
said he would take his report and present it to WHO Director
General Brundtland on Friday morning.
Such decisions were made within a "standard format", he noted,
adding that the WHO director-general may ask other questions for
further information.
Dr. Heymann was on a two-day tour to China for an exchange of views
with the Chinese Ministry of Health on the country's SARS
prevention and control efforts.
He
is expected to end his tour and leave China after the press
briefing.
China strives to prevent reoccurrence of SARS
Gao said that China was striving to prevent the recurrence of the
SARS outbreak.
According to Gao, China would closely collaborate with the
international community to combat the flu-like virus, which had
claimed 789 lives and affected 32 countries or regions worldwide as
of June 10, according to WHO statistics.
The vice-minister noted that China and the WHO office in Beijing
shared effective information exchange and the Chinese MOH offered
all information available to the WHO office.
A
deficient disease information network in China had led to a lack of
SARS data when the SARS epidemic disease first broke out, Gao
admitted.
Now the MOH had required health-care agencies all over the country
to collect and report all SARS-related information, he added,
including close contacts, case tracing data, and reviewing of early
SARS patients.
"The data we provided to the WHO is based on months of work," he
said, and his country will continue its anti-SARS work so as to
avoid a recurrence of the epidemic.
(Xinhua News Agency June 12, 2003)