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)
