WHO Experts Praise Chinese Health Workers,Predict No More SARS Upsurge

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, May 14, 2003

WHO Experts Praise Chinese Health Workers,Predict No More SARS Upsurge

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Experts with the World Health Organization (WHO) have spoken highly of China's health care workers for their efforts against the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in north China's Hebei province.

At a meeting with provincial officials at the end of their five-day inspection, WHO expert James Maguire said the health care workers are working hard and have done "successful" work against SARS.

"Their dedication and diligence were admirable," he said.

Maguire, along with another four WHO experts, concluded their inspection of the province's SARS prevention work and returned to Beijing Tuesday.

The WHO experts visited local epidemic prevention stations, hospitals and village clinics during their tour.

The province has a highly dense population of over 67 million, but "we found local people are very knowledgeable about SARS," said Maguire, attributing that to the efforts of health care workers to educate the public.

"We've seen so many hard working medical workers," Maguire said."But the health care workers like those in the local epidemic prevention centers are also worthy of praise."

With the efforts of the public health care workers, the province has set up a "well organized" surveillance system but training of its medical workers at the grassroots level should be further strengthened, said another WHO expert Alan Schnur.

China's SARS surveillance network unique

China has created a unique surveillance system using neighborhood communities to detect potential severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) cases, James Maguire from the World Health Organization (WHO) said in Beijing Tuesday.

Maguire, along with other WHO experts, had just concluded an inspection tour of Hebei Province in north China. He told a press conference in Beijing that Hebei had set up checkpoints at major commuter entrances into the province.

It also developed a "community watch" surveillance network. In addition to hospitals, these measures formed a "triple safety net," he said.

"It's quite a complicated and intricate web of surveillance," he said. "It's like a fishing net. It uses the traditional neighborhood community unit so it is quite unique to China."

He said this surveillance was active and could search for and detect potential SARS cases, compared to the passive system set upin hospitals.

Other WHO experts noted that in the places they visited in Hebei, almost everyone knew what SARS was and what its main symptoms were.

WHO expert Alan Schnur said the entire society had been mobilized the entire society.

"Overall, we are quite encouraged by these innovative strategies," he said.

Another WHO expert Keiji Fukuda said that all levels of the Chinese government, from the highest to the lowest, were showing increasing commitment to working with the international community and to working on SARS. He said the experts also saw the willingness of the Chinese government to listen to comments from the international community and make changes in its work.

WHO expert predicts no more SARS upsurge in China

An expert from the World Health Organization (WHO) said here Tuesday that there would not be another upsurge of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in China thanks to its improving surveillance and health care system.

Alan Schnur, a WHO official based in Beijing, said the situation now in China is very much different from even a month ago.

With the strengthening of SARS education, people are more aware of the contagious disease and are fully prepared to control and prevent the illness, Schnur said.

He predicted there would be no further SARS upsurge in the country such as happened in Guangdong province and Beijing.

James Maguire, another member of the international organizationwho just finished an inspection in Hebei Province, said he was confident he would see China control the SARS epidemic under its improved surveillance and heath care system.

The WHO experts said the drop in the number of China's SARS cases in recent days was "encouraging", but warned that it was tooearly to say that the disease was declining.

WHO experts confident in China's statistics of SARS cases

World Heath Organization (WHO) experts expressed their confidence in Beijing Tuesday in the statistics of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) cases provided by China.

Responding to a reporter's query at a press conference, Henk Bekedam, the WHO representative in China, said that the WHO team in China was using the same database as China's health departmentsand sharing information with their Chinese colleagues.

Daniel Chin, another WHO expert, also confirmed that the WHO expert team has access to any information in China's health departments, stressing that he felt very confident of accomplishing his mission in China and there was no reason to say that China was hiding the number of SARS cases.

WHO expert Keiji Fukuda said that China's surveillance and health care system has been much improved and he understood that it could be very difficult for China to find back data that might have been misreported due to the knowledge and personnel restrictions when SARS first appeared in China.

The WHO does appreciate the cooperation that China has offered in the combat against the epidemic, Fukuda stressed.

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