Sunday, Apr 27, 2003
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By P. S. Suryanarayana
The Chinese Vice-Premier, Wu Yi, who has been named to serve concurrently as Health Minister.
The upgrading of the political importance of the Health portfolio was effected following the formal resignation by Zhang Wenkang, who was only a few days ago sacked from his key post in the ruling Communist Party's unit of the Ministry of Health in the context of the global criticism of China's handling of the SARS crisis. China's political priority at this moment is to address the enormous public health challenge of taming the SARS epidemic. It is in this context that the Chinese leadership briefed key visiting leaders from abroad — the Indian Defence Minister, George Fernandes, and the French Prime Minister, Jean Pierre Raffarin — about the measures being taken by China to combat the menace. This became doubly important for Beijing in view of France being inclined to associate China with the Group of Eight — seven industrialised countries plus Russia. On a related front, the Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, presided over the "founding ceremony" for the National SARS Control and Prevention Headquarters. Outlining the tasks before China on this front, Mr. Wen called for free medical services to the poor among the SARS patients in the rural areas. He urged the research institutions to utilise the scientific resources at home and abroad to develop anti-SARS medicines and methods. He also called for closer cooperation between China and the World Health Organisation.
154 new cases
The Chinese mainland today reported 154 new SARS cases, which took the total to 2,753. The updated death toll in China was put at 122. There was no sign of any improvement in the situation in Hong Kong, with a grim sentiment defining the mood there. In Singapore, where a stringent anti-SARS legislation was passed on Friday, Michael Lim, a Member of Parliament with medical qualifications, said he was "in favour of more draconian measures." The new law, in effect an expansion of the existing legislation on infectious diseases, provides for fines and/or jail terms for home-quarantine breakers and others who might endanger the community's health through such actions as going to public places while suspecting that they might have been SARS-infected. On the overall question of Singapore's "war on SARS," The Straits Times noted in its editorial today that "the home fight has some way to go," especially in the context of the "public apprehension about going for screening at the dedicated SARS centre, ironically for fear of contracting SARS there." In Kuala Lumpur, the Health Ministers of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) as also China, Japan and Canada met to address the SARS-related issues such as the severity of the health crisis, the need for international cooperation in controlling the new disease, the impact on economies and the possible turbulence in "social tranquillity."
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