UN health agency team travels to China to assess SARS situation

A team from the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) travelled to China today to confer with health officials there about the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in the country and exchange views on the next steps forward.

WHO said it would like to develop, in collaboration with the Chinese Government, a research agenda that fully exploits the many lines of evidence uniquely associated with the SARS experience in China. The team also wants to assess areas where Chinese authorities may require more support to ensure that the disease is securely contained.

"SARS is a serious disease with many puzzling features," said David Heymann, Executive Director of WHO's Communicable Diseases section and leader of the team to China. "Long-term containment depends on finding answers to a long list of scientific questions. China has much to offer the rest of the world."

Some immediate issues for discussion concern case definitions, procedures for contact tracing, and the extent of local transmission in specific areas, WHO said. The team will also seek reassurance that hospital equipment and supplies for infection control are adequate, especially in the poorer provinces.

WHO officials also hope to learn which measures taken by China have so rapidly brought the country's SARS outbreak - the largest in the world - under control.

Answers to these and other questions will help build a solid scientific basis for understanding SARS, predicting its future evolution, and knowing how to respond should cases surface in new areas or resurface in areas where the disease has been contained, WHO said.

As of today, there have been a total of 8,430 probably cases, with 789 deaths reported in 28 countries.