World Health Organization (WHO) experts have called for the
creation of a global information database to enhance exchange of
information on contagious diseases such as severe acute respiratory
syndrome (SARS).
Alan Schnur, team leader of Communicable Disease Control of the WHO
office in China, made the appeal at the ASEAN (Association of
Southeast Asian Nations), China, Japan and ROK (10+3) High-level
Symposium on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which closed in
Beijing Wednesday.
Access to individual nations' data is critical in battling
epidemics such as SARS, Schnur said, and it would be conducive for
the government, medical personnel and general public to make known
SARS information rapidly and comprehensively.
Schnur said that contagious diseases could be detrimental to the
public health as well as to other sectors such as the economy in
the era of globalization.
Countries should participate in setting up the database by
reporting their own epidemic situation, analyzing measures and
sharing related information and experience, Schnur
acknowledged.
The WHO would collect information from various governments,
non-governmental organizations and international agencies, acquaint
itself with the latest global developments concerning the
infectious diseases and then resort to counter-measures, Schnur
said.
He
noted that the data would be very wide-ranging instead of being
limited within the field of communicable diseases.
It
is imperative for countries across the world to share common
criteria on diagnoses of diseases and evaluation of their severity
and impact so as to facilitate the use of disease information from
various countries and regions, said Max Hardiman with the
Department of Communicable Disease Surveillance and Response of the
WHO global alert and response sector.
The WHO will strive to strengthen the two-way access to SARS
information, Hardiman said.
The two-day symposium was a follow-up to the joint declaration
proclaimed at the Special China-ASEAN Leaders' Meeting on SARS held
on April 29 in Bangkok, Thailand.
About 100 delegates from the ASEAN nations, Japan, the Republic of
Korea (ROK), the WHO, and health officials from Mongolia, the
United States, Britain, France, Canada and China attended the
seminar.
(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2003)