WHO Expert: 'I Trust Our Chinese Counterparts'

An official with the World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday in Beijing 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 is really 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. "The support 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.

Heads are gonna roll in The Party over this, but they still won't tell us the truth. I don't think we're headed for "The Stand", but if this virus were just a little bit worse, we'd all be in very serious doo doo.

They knew of the first case back in November. Now they want to come clean. There's no saving face on this one. They screwed up, and they screwed up big time.

With or without the agenda driven WHO, this is bad. It could be a lot worse, and it may get a lot worse (for them and those in Singapore). I've heard little talk of transmission, but the primary culprit is most likely the usual suspects - snot and feces. The two different strains (gut or chest), raises red flags, too.

I think we're ok here in the USofA. No deaths here so far, and it seems to be somewhat contained. It's a beatable bug, but will the next one be?

FLASHBACK:

Sitting with D. A. Henderson [widely credited with the eradication of smallpox] in his house, I mentioned what seemed to be the great and tragic paradox of his life's work. The eradication caused the human species to lose its immunity to smallpox, and that was what made it possible for the Soviets to turn smallpox into a weapon rivalling the hydrogen bomb.

Henderson responded with silence, and then said thoughtfully, "I feel very sad about this. The eradication never would have succeeded without the Russians. Viktor Zhdanov [who first raised the idea] started it, and they did so much. They were extremely proud of what they had done. I felt the virus was in good hands with the Russians. I never would have suspected. They made twenty tons -- twenty tons -- of smallpox. For us to have come so far with the disease, and now to have to deal with this human creation, when there are so many other problems in the world . . ." He was quiet again. "It's a great letdown," he said.

Excerpted from THE DEMON IN THE FREEZER

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