Top World Health Organization (WHO) communicable disease official
David Heymann arrived on Wednesday morning to work in cooperation
with Chinese government SARS prevention authorities.
During the two-day trip, Heymann, WHO's Executive Director on
Communicable Diseases, is expected to confer with the Chinese
Ministry of Health (MOH) about the severe acute respiratory
syndrome (SARS) outbreak in the country and discuss its future
plans, said a WHO press release.
Other members of the team, noted the press release, include Guenael
Rodier, director of communicable disease surveillance and response,
and Thomas Grein, who coordinates global response operations for
the SARS.
Moreover, a joint MOH-WHO task force was conducting a field survey
in Tianjin municipality, some 120 kilometers east of Beijing,
according to the MOH.
Another two teams were expected to trek to north China's
Shanxiprovince and Inner Mongolia autonomous region next week, both
areas which had been severely plagued by the SARS virus.
Reported SARS cases have been ebbed on the Chinese mainland in the
past week, with no new case reported for seven straight days.
The WHO estimated that the peak of the SARS epidemic, both
globally, and in China, was over. The organization is reportedly
close to reviewing travel advisories on north China's Hebei and
Shanxi provinces, Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Tianjin
city.
(Xinhua News Agency June 11, 2003)
