- The World Health Organization is bracing for what it
says could be a new outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome later
this year. V-O-A's Luis Ramirez reports from Beijing.
-
- BEIJING -- An international
team of scientists has called on Chinese officials to standardize and improve
tests to better track the spread of SARS should it reoccur. They advised
the government to improve data collection, research and reporting.
-
- The team of World Health Organization researchers says
it gave a list of other recommendations to China to prevent or control
new outbreaks.
-
- The recommendations include new regulations on the sale
of the meat of wild animals. Although there has yet to be any conclusive
evidence on the origins of the disease, researchers say they believe it
may have come from wild animals eaten in southern China.
-
- The big question posed to the scientists is: Is the virus
likely to come back this winter?
-
- Alan Schnur, a WHO communicable disease expert, says
no one knows.
-
- "There is a chance that it can come back. The exact
percentage we don't know. We are ready this time. The W-H-O (is) working
with the government to set up enhanced surveillance so that if it does
come back we will be fully prepared to jump on it to make sure that it
does not spread in hospitals, and that we fully contain it if it comes
back."
-
- Mr. Schnur says the World Health Organization will help
the Chinese government begin a program next month to train thousands of
health workers to deal with the illness if it reappears.
-
- SARS has killed more than 800 people worldwide - most
of them in China, where the disease first appeared late last year.
-
- No new cases of SARS have been reported in several months.
The last two patients who were hospitalized with the disease in Beijing
were discharged a few days ago.
-
- Scientists on Thursday urged the government of China
to invest more in its crumbling health system. At the same time, they praised
Chinese officials for what they said is an ambitious effort to prepare
for a possible reappearance of the disease. (SIGNED)
-
-
- http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2003/08/mil-030821-3ce59318.htm
|