An official with the World Health Organization (WHO) said in Beijing Monday that although it is difficult for him to judge the real figure of SARS victims in China, he "trusts the Chinese counterparts," referring to the country's health departments.
During an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Jeffrey McFarland said that "it is very encouraging to see that all sectors of the health care system, which means the Ministry of Health and all hospitals, whether local, military or otherwise, are reporting every day all the probable cases," stressing that it is the "only way" to understand the magnitude of the epidemic.
"No surveillance system in the world can find every single case," McFarland said. "We human beings are not perfect. But it sounds like they [Chinese health departments] are doing everything they can to report all probable SARS cases."
Alan Schnur, another WHO expert, proposed four strategies on Monday to curb severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Beijing,which include surveillance and reporting, hospital management and infection control, community information and contact tracing and good government support.
He said the WHO expert team has seen in Guangdong some successful strategies implemented, which "are now becoming more clear."
Schnur maintained that of the strategies, No. 1 is surveillance.
"That means finding the cases and reporting them. The system isreally very good in Guangdong, and we hope Beijing can have the same system."
He added that the surveillance must look especially at health care workers, which will "help us control the transmission to them."
The second strategy is hospital management and infection control.
"Health management means anytime someone with a fever comes to hospital, it needs to be checked immediately whether he has SARS,"said Schnur. "If there is a possibility it is SARS, the person needs to be isolated to prevent it from infecting other people."
For health workers treating SARS patients, the expert said they"must wear special clothes and masks, as that is very important tostop them from becoming victims of SARS."
Community information and contact tracing came as the third of Schnur's recommendations.
"If there is a SARS case, people who have had contact with the patient need to be traced and he needs to be isolated. The community information should tell people what are the symptoms of SARS. If you have the symptoms, you should wear a mask, so as not to affect other people, and then go to clinic for a check."
Schnur believes government support is also very important. "Thesupport can mean money, people and regulations. The government should provide enough money and human resources, because there is a lot of work to be done."
The WHO expert stressed the media's role in informing the public about the disease.
"The public should not panic, because the chance of getting SARS is very, very small, but also the public should be responsible," Schnur said. "They need to know if they have any of the symptoms of SARS, and they must make sure they don't spread it."
"The best way to prevent the spread of SARS is for everyone to be responsible," said the expert.
(Xinhua News Agency April 22, 2003)
