Cooperation with Beijing off to a Good Start: WHO Expert

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 28, 2003

Cooperation with Beijing off to a Good Start: WHO Expert

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Beijing got off to a good start Sunday in cooperating with the World Health Organization (WHO) in the fight against SARS when a WHO expert team praised the city's Disease Control Center after a seven-hour inspection.

"Today sees a good beginning. The information we got here is very useful," said Alan Schnur, leader of the communicable disease control team of the WHO China office Sunday evening, after touring the center with three other WHO experts.

The staff of the Beijing Disease Control Center briefed them on the details of attempts to curb the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), including the information on both confirmed and suspected SARS cases.

At the WHO's request, the center also provided the experts detailed data on SARS patients over the past two days.

Dr Jeffrey McFarland, medical officer of the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office said the data was really important and its analysis was urgently needed.

Beijing would take an open attitude to cooperating with the WHO which could check the Beijing Disease Control Center for information at any time, Wang Qishan, acting mayor of Beijing, said during a meeting with Hank Bekedam, WHO representative in China.

Guo Jiyong, deputy director of the Beijing Health Bureau, briefed the guests on the hospitals in Beijing for SARS patients.

Beijing has designated 13 hospitals for 1,700 SARS patients in addition to the hospitals affiliated to Chinese military forces, Guo said, adding that three other hospitals had also made preparations for SARS patients.

Alan Schnur said this was a good beginning and the two sides should cooperate further.

Beijing hopes full cooperation with WHO

The Beijing Municipal Government will cooperate completely with the WHO in an active and honest way to fight SARS, said Beijing top officials at a meeting with WHO China representative Henk Bekedam Sunday.

As an international metropolis, Beijing had a strong desire to strengthen international cooperation, especially with the WHO in the fight against SARS, said Liu Qi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPC.

"From April 27, Beijing Municipal Government will provide more details about SARS, including the figures of SARS patients in each district, the names of isolated hospitals and residential buildings, the number of isolated people," said Liu, also head of Beijing's SARS control working group.

Considering WHO's valuable experience with SARS, Beijing government welcomed WHO experts to join in improving its disease prevention plan and hoped the WHO could recommend expert advisers for Beijing's SARS control working group, who would be invited to attend relevant meetings, said Liu.

The local government would publish SARS information and knowledge in various ways to satisfy different demands. Local citizen were usually knowledgeable about good hygiene and kept a close watch on the latest SARS information, while many rural laborers in Beijing needed basic hygiene knowledge and medical services, said Wang Qishan, acting major of Beijing.

Wang stressed that the Beijing government sincerely hoped for helpful advice from the WHO, which was experienced in helping developing countries, especially effective guidance in cutting off the infection channels of SARS and internationally-accepted prevention standards of infectious diseases.

"We would like to share SARS information with WHO so as to improve the transparency and efficiency of our information publicity," said Wang.

Wang also proposed to establish a hotline between both sides oropen an office for WHO experts to improve cooperation.

Bekedam told Xinhua after the meeting that he had seen that the Chinese government is very serious about SARS and had put very senior people in charge of dealing with SARS, and the WHO is looking forward to working together with departments concerned in fighting SARS.

He stressed that it was very important to communicate well with the public, with the media and with the international community about what the government is doing.

He said he and his colleagues are impressed by what Beijing has been doing, but he thought that improvement is still needed in communication with the public, so as to let the latter have a better understanding of what is happening, a better understanding of what the figures mean, through which they will also know how to protect themselves.

Beijing publishes detailed information on SARS

All major Beijing-based media will publish from Sunday the number of SARS cases in every district and county of the previous day and the information on the latest quarantine areas as well as the number of quarantined people.

The Beijing SARS-control working group issued the order on Sunday, saying the city would make SARS information more transparent and try to curb the spread of the disease by issuing the information for another 18 districts and counties and quarantine areas as well as the number of the quarantined people.

By 10:00 a.m. on Apr. 27, Beijing took quarantine control measures in the following areas: a residential quarter of Renmin Hospital, a residential building of the Central University of Finance and Economics, three dormitory buildings in the Northern Jiaotong University and two dormitory buildings in Beijing Science and Technology Research Institute and a construction site in Dongcheng district.

The quarantine control was also taken in the entire area of Renmin Hospital, 24 designated SARS patient hospitals, and in the SARS patient reception areas of 29 general hospitals as well as the fever outpatient departments in 74 hospitals.

By 10:00 a.m. on Apr. 27, a total of 7,672 people had been quarantined for close contact with SARS patients or suspected SARS carriers and 1,384 people had been discharged from quarantine.

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