WHO Experts Well-informed in Study Tour on SARS in S. China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, April 06, 2003

WHO Experts Well-informed in Study Tour on SARS in S. China

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WHO Experts Well-informed in Study Tour on SARS

"The data we've got during the three days of staying here is much more than we expected," said Dr.Robert F. Breiman, head of a five-member World Health Organization (WHO) expert team in Guangdong Province studying the situation of SARS.

They were impressed with the work of the local government in Guangdong, south China, on the control of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), said Breiman at press conference Saturday.

The hospitals they visited have done a remarkable job and they follow the procedures and techniques that are used by Asian countries to control the virus, according to the WHO expert.

The local government and hospitals have a job to protect medical staff and health workers, he said.

WHO Experts' Study Tour on SARS

"We encourage scientists and medical experts here to release their huge amount of research results not only to China but also to international journals.

He hoped that local scientists and experts should pay special attention to the highly-infectious patients.

Talking about the origin of the virus, Breiman said, "We probably won't know for a while what the origin of this virus is."

"We can't really say without further information where this actually originated," he said, "It's really too early to tell where it came from."

"It's always possible it came from somewhere else, it's possible it came from here, we'll just have to wait for more information to come in," the expert said.

At this stage, their work is merely to collect data and analyze the data, Breiman said. "In fact, we don't know where is the origin of this virus," he added.

Alan Schnur, another WHO expert, said that for personal health,the risk is pretty. "If we compare the number of patients with the populations of Guangzhou and Hong Kong, the percentage is pretty small," he said.

"As to public health, the medical staff members and health workers are more likely to be infected by SARS. So we should take necessary and immediate measures to guarantee their safety." "There is risk, but it is pretty small. That's why we don't wear masks," he said.

The WHO delegation will stay in Guangdong until April 8.

SARS May not Originate from China

The atypical pneumonia disease may not originate from China, said a World Health Organization (WHO) official Saturday.

James Maguire, one of the five-member WHO official team, said they suspect the atypical pneumonia virus, which blends chlamydia,coronavirus, and mixed viruses, actually originated from certain kind of animal instead of from China.

Maguire and his team went to the Medical School of Zhongshan University Saturday morning, where they had a discussion with Chinese experts of virology and lemology who had recently been engaged in treating SARS and visited the laboratory there.

According to him, another important thing the team members are working on and also puzzled at is that the atypical pneumonia virus seems to have different effect on different patients -- some are highly infective, some are not.

Dr. Robert F. Breiman, head of the Program on Infectious Disease and Vaccine Science of the Center of Health and Population Research, said the related information and analysis of the cases of the disease provided by the Chinese side were both true and comprehensive, and the treatment on infected patients has also been found effective.

He said part of his team's hypothesis has been further proved during their stay in the province, which is an important result of their visit.

Robert F. Breiman, one of the WHO team members and head of the Program on Infectious Disease and Vaccine Science of the Center of Health and Population Research, said the related information and analysis of the SARS cases provided by the Chinese side were true and comprehensive, and the treatment on SARS patients had also been found effective.

He said part of his team's hypothesis had been further proved during their stay in Guangdong in the past three days, adding that it was an important result of their visit.

Chinese Gov't Concerned about SARS Control

The Chinese government has attached great importance to the control and treatment of atypical pneumonia, said Vice-Health Minister Ma Xiaowei Saturday.

Ma was speaking while meeting the five experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) currently on an inspection tour on the disease of atypical pneumonia in Guangzhou.

As a member nation, China had maintained good, long-term links with the WHO, Ma said, noting that China was dutiful in providing relevant information and data to the WHO, so as to help other countries curb the spread of atypical pneumonia.

Local government and medical workers in Guangdong had made enormous efforts to control and treat atypical pneumonia, and great achievements had been made.

Ma thanked the WHO experts for their work and hoped that they would travel to more places in Guangdong to learn the real situation.

Dr. Robert F. Breiman, one of the WHO experts, said during their trip in the province, they had been warmly received by localgovernment officials and medical experts, who had informed the WHO team of the situation in Guangdong in a positive manner.

Guangdong's experience was of great value as a reference for the global effort to control and treat atypical pneumonia, he said, adding it was a hard job that required the joint efforts of medical workers from all countries.

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