Medical experts at a symposium on the prevention of severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS) Saturday warned people against the
re-emergence of the disease, days after Singapore reported a new
case of the flu-like epidemic.
Over 800 medical experts from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong
and Macao convened over the weekends in Guangzhou, capital of south
China's Guangdong
Province, to share their perceptions on the epidemic, which
swept over the world in the first half of this year, killing over
900 people and sickening over 8,400.
Ni Daxin, an expert from the China Disease Control Center, said
that as an epidemic, SARS could reappear.
People might possibly face an attack of the disease this autumn
or next spring, and governments and people should be well prepared
for the possible reappearance, Ni said.
However, Ni said people should not panic as long as effective
measures are taken in the prevention and control of the spread of
the epidemic.
Experts agreed that the diagnosis of SARS is still a hard
problem. As a single method cannot ward off misdiagnosis, experts
suggested more than one test be employed to make sure the diagnosis
was correct.
Though medical scientists in Guangdong have made some progress
in the search for a vaccine against SARS, Zhong Nanshan, an
expertat respiratory disease in the province and academician of the
Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that it has not yet been
tested on people.
But he said a trial vaccine could be used if SARS breaks out
again.
Zhong, who played a leading role in China in determining that
the coronavirus was the cause of SARS, said SARS patients could
avoid being re-infected, at least within six months, as they
usually developed very strong antibodies after the first
infection.
Zhong said that he made the conclusion upon his follow-up
investigation on over 60 SARS patients.
(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2003)