SARS Information Offered by China Informative, Complete

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, June 14, 2003

SARS Information Offered by China Informative, Complete

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Joint Press Conference by WHO and MOH

A World Health Organization expert said Thursday that he now has full understanding of why China's SARS cases have been reduced so dramatically, expressing satisfaction with the country's efforts to contain the spread of the virus.

Speaking at a joint press conference in Beijing with Chinese Vice Health Minister Gao Qiang, David Heymann, an infectious disease expert from the WHO, said China has launched a nationwide campaign to check the disease and that's partly the reason the disease has waned so quickly.

Heymann said both the WHO and the Chinese government agree to the necessity of continuing measures to contain the disease and prevent a future rebound.

SARS information "Informative and Complete"

Heymann told the press briefing that SARS-related information offered by China was "informative and complete". The useful information on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) offered by China during his two-day tour reflected China's efforts in controlling the disease.

Five SARS-hit Chinese provincial regions briefed Heymann on their SARS situation in detail on Wednesday.

The WHO official attributed the rapid decrease of SARS cases on the Chinese mainland to the "massive efforts in mobilizing the whole population".

He said the shorter time for the identification of SARS patients, and quick tracing and surveillance activities led to the rapid decrease of SARS cases on the Chinese mainland.

In some provinces, Heymann said, the time for identifying a SARS patient from the onset of symptoms had decreased from four days to one day.

Heymann said his visit to China was not an "inspection tour" but rather a visit for exchanging views with China on the SARS situation and to assess where China needed more support from the WHO.

"There's much more remains to be done," Heymann said. The WHO hoped to "constantly obtain data from China," he said.

China's case definition "compatible" with WHO's

The WHO official said that China's SARS case definition is "compatible" with that of the WHO, and the country's SARS case definition is "more sensitive", resulting in a higher number of suspected SARS cases.

He noted that the eventual goal was still to set up a standard SARS case definition worldwide.

Gao Qiang, executive vice-minister of health, said that it was difficult to rely only on case definitions to diagnose SARS patients because of the incomplete understanding of the epidemic disease.

He acknowledged that it was imperative to develop a test kit for a more accurate diagnosis.

Heymann said that, from the detailed analysis of fatality ratesin Hong Kong and Singapore and from the data examined in Geneva, the WHO has found a strong correlation between fatality rate and age.

The WHO believes that the Chinese fatality rate is following the same pattern, Heymann said.

The fatality rate for cases under 25 years old is less than one percent, while that for people between 25 and 65 is about five percent. The rate for those over 65 is over 50 percent, the WHO official said.

However, due to the larger proportion of younger SARS patients in China, Heymann said, the fatality rate here has been lower than those in other parts of the world.

The most important is that the WHO continues with the Chinese government in strengthening the surveillance system and accompanying research, which is necessary to better understand the risk factors for this disease entering the population and how to prevent that in the future, he said.

He also stressed the importance of establishing a proper link between hospitals and public health systems, as well as adequate mechanisms for information-sharing between the WHO and the Chinese government.

"I was deeply impressed by the confidence which has been established in the last four months between the Chinese government and the WHO," Heymann said, adding that it is very important for the WHO to have confidence in its member states.

"With this confidence, we are able to assess together the effectiveness of the activities which have been done in China," said Heymann.

WHO assessment "positive, objective, fair"

The WHO has given a "positive, objective and fair" assessment of China's anti-SARS efforts, said Gao Qiang, Chinese vice-minister of health.

Gao said that he had had a comprehensive and thorough conversation on SARS control with Dr. David Heymann.

Gao said he had discussed with Dr. Heymann the measures to prevent a reoccurrence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS),and methods to improve China's prevention and treatment system for communicable diseases.

During the conversation, Gao expressed his thanks to the WHO for its help in China's battle against SARS, saying that his country will work in cooperation with the WHO in other areas in addition to SARS control.

China expects to cooperate with the WHO on a still broader and deeper level in the hope of improving its public health system, building up a sound public health system in rural areas, and training more qualified medical workers, Gao said.

China strives to prevent reoccurrence of SARS

Gao Qiang said on that China was striving to prevent the recurrence of the SARS outbreak.

The vice minister said China would closely collaborate with the international community to combat the flu-like virus, which had claimed 789 lives and affected 32 countries or regions worldwide as of June 10, according to WHO statistics.

Gao noted that China and the WHO office in Beijing shared effective information exchange and the Chinese MOH offered all information available to the WHO office.

A deficient disease information network in China had led to a lack of SARS data when the SARS epidemic disease first broke out, Gao admitted.

Now the MOH had required health-care agencies all over the country to collect and report all SARS-related information, he added, including close contacts, case tracing data, and reviewing of early SARS patients.

"The data we provided to the WHO is based on months of work," he said, and his country will continue its anti-SARS work so as toavoid a recurrence of the epidemic.

Lifting of travel advisory to be decided by WHO director-general

Heymann said that decisions on whether to lift SARS travel advisories would be decided by WHO Director General Gro Harlem Brundtland according to preset standards.

Heymann said that the lifting of advisories was dependent on the number of active SARS case in certain areas, the number of new cases reported each day in an area, and the number of cases exported from one place to another.

He said he would take his report and present it to WHO Director General Brundtland on Friday morning.

Such decisions were made within a "standard format", he noted, adding that the WHO director-general may ask other questions for further information.

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