Military

DATE=5/28/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ASIA SARS - L ONLY

NUMBER=2-303712

BYLINE=KATHERINE MARIA

DATELINE=HONG KONG

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The World Health Organization says it is now convinced China is using accurate reporting methods on the number of cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. And, as V-O-A's Katherine Maria reports, the U-N agency says it will use new powers to help stem the spread of future disease outbreaks.

TEXT: The World Health Organization says after serious initial problems, China is now using solid means to assess the nation's Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak.

Bob Dietz, a W-H-O representative in Beijing, told V-O-A Wednesday that international experts returning from China's poorer rural areas believe the disease has been effectively checked and that is why China is reporting lower numbers of new cases.

/// DIETZ ACT ///

In the provinces, where we've had inspection teams when they go jointly with the Chinese Ministry of Health, we're pretty sure that the figures we're seeing are accurate and being reported in good faith. We think the methods that China has put in place are strong - we find a commitment and mobilization that goes down to a very grass roots level.

/// END ACT ///

China, with the world's most serious outbreak of 53-hundred-22 cases, adopted a policy of transparent reporting in April - as the outbreak spread rapidly from the southern region to 26 provinces and the capital.

At the outbreak's peak, China saw hundreds of new SARS cases each day. Yet after quarantines were enacted, the number of new transmissions fell dramatically - prompting fresh concerns China was underreporting cases.

China reported only four new cases on Wednesday - one of the lowest daily figures since the outbreak's peak.

SARS is believed to have first appeared in China in November, but the country kept silent for months. When it showed up in Hong Kong in March, China still took weeks to fully cooperate with international health officials on stemming the infection rate and allow the W-H-O to send teams into the country.

Meanwhile, the World Health Assembly on Tuesday, prompted by lessons from SARS, adopted new measures to better respond to disease outbreaks. Peter Cordingley, the W-H-O's Asia Pacific spokesman, says the agency will now have more authority if it suspects a government is hiding crucial data on a disease outbreak.

/// CORDINGLEY ACT ///

W-H-O has been given a lot more power to intervene earlier on in cases of outbreaks.. The problem with SARS and the reason it got into Chinese society and then spread internationally is that basically our hands were tied. We couldn't go in until we were invited in. We don't now have the power to interfere, but we do have the power to issue warnings without having first to consult with the government and be invited.

/// END ACT ///

Worldwide, SARS has afflicted some 82-hundred people, of whom more than seven-hundred have died. (signed)

NEB/HK/KM/JO