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Vietnam may be removed from SARS list

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE APRIL 28. Even as China continued to wage an uphill battle against the rampaging spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), there was some sign of good news elsewhere on this overall front in East Asia today.

Although the World Health Organisation had not yet formally notified Vietnam as a SARS-free country, the WHO representative in Hanoi is understood to have endorsed the assertion of the local authorities in this regard. According to the Vietnamese authorities, the SARS outbreak in their country had now been contained, given that no new cases were reported in the past 20 days (twice the period said to be needed for this new disease to manifest itself in any individual case).

Of relevance to this development is the WHO's advisory as on Saturday that Vietnam might be removed from the list of countries and areas that were affected by the SARS crisis. That assessment was based on the perceived observation that no new cases of the disease had been detected in Vietnam for 18 consecutive days as at the time the relevant assessment was made. The SARS death roll in Vietnam was put at five.

In Hong Kong, the WHO and the local authorities were optimistic that the territory's ongoing battle against the SARS was beginning to yield results.

With more deaths reported today, the toll in Hong Kong now stood at 138. New cases were reported too. The environmental aspects of the anti-SARS campaign in Hong Kong received additional attention today.

In China, the total death toll until morning on Monday stood at 139. The total number of confirmed cases had crossed 3000, the latest figure being 3,106. In Beijing alone, over 8000 people were quarantined so far, while the Chinese authorities sustained their campaign of instructions to local officials and hospitals on how to manage the crisis.

In Singapore, where the SARS-related deaths were put at 21 so far, the authorities were confident that it might be possible to control the epidemic sooner than later, given the results of the steps taken so far.

Summit planned

On the wider regional front, Thailand went ahead with the preparations to host a regional summit on SARS. The Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, left Beijing for Bangkok to attend the summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a special guest. Hong Kong, too, would be represented at this summit, slated for tomorrow.

However, the Bo'ao Forum's latest annual conference, scheduled to be held in southern China next month, was postponed indefinitely in view of the unabated SARS crisis. The Bo'ao Forum is the Asian equivalent of the World Economic Forum.

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