That's somewhat Onionesque.
SARS makes it imperative to include Taiwan in WHO
by Alice Wang
Wednesday, April 2, 2003
Special to the Augusta Chronicle
EVEN AMID THE overwhelming coverage of the Iraq war, another important news item has caught many people's attention recently. And as this story unfolds day by day, it has become more and more alarming.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, has spread to three continents and more than a dozen countries. According to the Associated Press and Knight Ridder news services, researchers at the World Health Organization believe SARS is the same disease that surfaced in China's Guangdong province last November. Chinese authorities originally imposed a news blackout about the outbreak. They finally released data on the epidemic after four months, but by then reported cases of SARS around the world numbered more than 1,500, with 58 deaths recorded. There are 72 cases in 22 states of the United States but, so far, no American has died.
There are also six confirmed cases in Taiwan. All six victims had recently traveled to China. Taiwan's Department of Health has issued travel warnings to its people and enforced quarantine, sterilization and other precautionary measures. But since Taiwan is not a member of the WHO, not only was its call for help on SARS six days late in coming, but Taiwan was not even included in the WHO travel warning.
The truth is that Taiwan will not be spared this epidemic simply because it is not a member of the WHO; epidemics know no political borders. Ignoring Taiwan not only imperils the Taiwanese people, but also opens a breach in the global web of disease containment, thus endangering the health of the entire world community.
RAPID GLOBALIZATION makes a unified front against communicable disease more necessary than ever. Quick and easy international travel means that contagion can travel across borders, or even oceans, in just a few hours. The same mobility that links distant locales also makes isolating an epidemic virtually impossible.
Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, WHO's director general, said in a recent interview that, "The illness is a worldwide health threat. The world needs to work together to find its cause, cure the sick and stop its spread." It is unnecessary and - because it takes the collective efforts of every member of the global village to combat this disease - unwise to exclude Taiwan from the world body most involved in fighting it.
The main reason that Taiwan has yet to be admitted to the WHO is because of China's objections. While China's pattern of secrecy about the handling of health issues within its borders is troubling enough, its policy - based on groundless claims over Taiwan - has resulted in the denial of basic human rights for the 23 million people on the island.
In its charter, WHO pledged to serve the interests of "people," not function as an exclusive club to further the political objectives of any "country." This is why WHO not only includes 192 nations as members, but also grants observer status to the Red Cross, Malta and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
TAIWAN MEETS ALL the requirements for recognition as a sovereign state. It is the world's 17th largest economy, and it has one of the most modern health infrastructures in the world, with highly trained medical practitioners ready to lend their skills to the international community. To exclude a willing and capable partner like Taiwan from, at the very least, observer status in the WHO is to deprive the world's sick of a source of help and of hope.
SARS serves as a wake-up call: It is time to admit Taiwan to the World Health Organization.
(Editor's note: The writer is the director of the Information Division of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Atlanta.)