Members of ASEAN Pledge Cooperation, Coordination in Efforts to Fight SARS

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

Members of ASEAN Pledge Cooperation, Coordination in Efforts to Fight SARS

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Hit by the severe acute respiratory syndromes (SARS), the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have pledged cooperation and coordination in their efforts to fight the disease.

At the just concluded meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the health ministers from the ASEAN members and health ministers from China, Japan and South Korea issued a communique, expressing their deep concern over the formidable challenges posed by SARS and affirmed the region's commitment to jointly contain the virus.

The communique required the 10-member ASEAN, along its key partners China, Japan and South Korea, impose stringent pre-departure screening at airports and seaports.

In accordance with the communique, the countries made it mandatory for all travelers to fill in health declaration forms.

The countries will also institute rules on in-flight management of suspected SARS cases on board and disinfection of aircraft.

The ministers also called on governments in the region to provide adequate resources for their health ministries so that they can swiftly and effectively react to the epidemic disease.

Besides, the communique asked every government to establish a contact office in its country for routine exchange of information and set up a "hotline" to facilitate communication.

Since the outbreak of SARS, five ASEAN member nations, namely Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, have reported infected SARS cases and death tolls from the disease.

To fight the disease, these countries have taken various measures.

Singapore set up two ministerial committees to control the spread of the disease.

Vietnam, the first ASEAN country reporting SARS case, established state and provincial committees to fight SARS. It is still on the high alert even the government declared that no new cases have been reported since April 8.

In the Philippines, the government earmarked a special budget of around 288 million US dollars to deal with the disease, in addition to the establishment of a senior special group led by the health minister.

Thailand, which reported its first SARS case on March 22, has carried out strict medical check-up for passengers and quarantine rules for Thais coming back from affected regions.

Other ASEAN countries free of SARS have also felt the pinch of the disease, which has dealt a heavy blow to all nations' tourism industry and related aviation and service sectors.

The Kuala Lump meeting laid the groundwork for Tuesday's Bangkok special summit scheduled for Tuesday.

At the special summit, seen as the first kind in ASEAN's history, the leaders of ASEAN members and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao are expected to discuss their further efforts to fight the disease. The leaders will also discuss the ways to recover the region's tourism and investment hit by the disease.

Analysts believe the meeting is significant because it will eventually promote the group's cooperation.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Maynmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In its 36-year history, ASEAN has held 12 summits altogether.

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