Top World Health Organization (WHO) communicable disease official David Heymann arrived on Wednesday morning to work in cooperation with Chinese government SARS prevention authorities.
During the two-day trip, Heymann, WHO's Executive Director on Communicable Diseases, is expected to confer with the Chinese Ministry of Health (MOH) about the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in the country and discuss its future plans, said a WHO press release.
Other members of the team, noted the press release, include Guenael Rodier, director of communicable disease surveillance and response, and Thomas Grein, who coordinates global response operations for the SARS.
Moreover, a joint MOH-WHO task force was conducting a field survey in Tianjin municipality, some 120 kilometers east of Beijing, according to the MOH.
Another two teams were expected to trek to north China's Shanxiprovince and Inner Mongolia autonomous region next week, both areas which had been severely plagued by the SARS virus.
Reported SARS cases have been ebbed on the Chinese mainland in the past week, with no new case reported for seven straight days.
The WHO estimated that the peak of the SARS epidemic, both globally, and in China, was over. The organization is reportedly close to reviewing travel advisories on north China's Hebei and Shanxi provinces, Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Tianjin city.
(Xinhua News Agency June 11, 2003)
