Posted on 04/13/2003 10:13:55 AM PDT by sarcasm
BEIJING: In a move that could deal a severe blow to the economy of the booming communist nation, the World Health Organisation put the Chinese government on notice by adding Beijing, a sprawling city of over 12 million people, to the list of cities affected by the new killer pneumonia.
The addition of Beijing as a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) affected city came as a blow to the Chinese government which has been claiming that the outbreak of the killer disease that has claimed nearly 120 lives world-wide has been "effectively contained" on the Chinese mainland.
"In addition to Beijing, other 'affected areas' in China include Guangdong province, Hong Kong special administrative region, Shanxi province, and Taiwan province," WHO said in a press release.
Toronto in Canada, Singapore, and Hanoi in Vietnam are other cities listed as affected by WHO, the world body said, adding that the new additions followed indications that chains of local transmission of SARS are occurring.
"The greatest concern arises when cases occur outside the established risk groups of health care workers and persons in close face-to-face contact with patients, such as household contacts and hospital visitors," it said.
A WHO expert team on SARS had pointed out this week that, in Beijing, only a minority of hospitals make daily reports of SARS cases.
According to figures released by China's ministry of health, there are 22 cases of SARS in Beijing out of which four have died.
Beijing mayor Meng Xuenong claimed on Saturday that a woman SARS patient had recovered from the illness.
"The number of suspected SARS patients taken by Local hospitals is decreasing and the epidemic situation in Beijing has been basically brought under control," Meng was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.
However, the low official figure of SARS infection in Beijing has been questioned by leading Chinese doctors who had accused the government of a 'cover up'.
The Beijing health bureau has invited a five-member WHO team to visit health facilities and review the SARS situation in the city.
The invitation followed WHO concerns about management of the SARS situation in Beijing by health authorities, particularly in relation to case reporting and contact tracing, the WHO press release said.
It said that the meetings, which began on Friday, would continue throughout next week.
"Specific objectives are to support the strengthening of surveillance and reporting, clinical management, infection control, and laboratory evaluation of cases," it said.
The Chinese mainland has, so far, reported 60 deaths from SARS while Hong Kong has had 35 casualties. The number of patients in China is 1,319 as of April 10 while in Hong Kong the figure was 1,108 as of April 12.
The WHO team that has completed a six-day on-the-spot investigation in the epicentre of SARS, south china's Guangdong province, has submitted an interim report to the government suggesting several recommendations.
The team told journalists that they found an urgent need to improve surveillance in China's countryside to head off new outbreaks in rural areas.
It said that the SARS reporting system established in Guangdong is an excellent model that all provinces should follow.
Team members suggest that the ministry of health should ensure that all provinces are brought up to Guangdong standards by implementing this system nation-wide as a matter of the utmost urgency.
A programme for evaluating and accrediting surveillance systems through evaluation by technical experts is also suggested in order to ensure that consistent standards are achieved and maintained.
WHO also pointed that better collaboration between virological laboratories in China is required, particularly to facilitate the exchange of results, specimens and reagents.
Further, it called for adequate funding and human resources to be urgently provided to ensure the proper functioning and sustainability of SARS surveillance activities as they are essential to controlling spread of the disease.
According to the WHO, 2,960 cases of SARS with 119 deaths, have been reported from 19 countries so far.
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