It is too early to tell whether there is a danger of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) becoming a pandemic like tuberculosis or AIDS, a World Health Organization (WHO) specialist told French media Sunday.
Isabelle Natal told France-Inter radio that the WHO is taking all necessary measures to prevent SARS from turning into a worldwide pandemic.
She said a "global alert" issued by the WHO on March 12 to health authorities worldwide about SARS is not to declare the disease as a pandemic, but to remind people of its threat and appeal for speeding up research and strengthening control measures.
She said the most frightening aspects of SARS were that it is anew disease for which there is no cure at present, hospital staff are in the front line at risk of contracting the disease, and it was being spread "ultra rapidly" by air travel.
According to WHO's most recent figures issued Saturday, the organization has recorded 4,836 probable cases of SARS in 28 countries and regions, 293 of them fatal.
(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2003)
