The World Health Organization (WHO) medical team had a busy
schedule on its fourth day in the capital of south China's
Guangdong Province.
The WHO experts have been visiting atypical pneumonia patients and
meeting with Chinese doctors since they arrived here on April
3.
On
Sunday morning, the team visited the municipal disease prevention
and treatment center, which has preserved more than 700 samples of
serum extracted from atypical pneumonia patients and from those who
have had close contact with the patients.
Guangdong Province reported the first case of atypical
pneumonia.
The Guangzhou municipal government provided the team with all of
the government policies and leaflets distributed by the local
public health administration to educate citizens on prevention.
The files will help other countries and regions to fight atypical
pneumonia, said Dr. Meirion Evans, a member of the WHO team.
The experts randomly selected local patients and received detailed
information about their condition and treatment from hospitals.
James Maguire, a member of the WHO team, visited the local hospital
with the greatest number of atypical pneumonia patients here Sunday
afternoon. He observed the hospital's measures to protect doctors
and nurses and to process waste.
He
said he was impressed by the hospital and medical workers here.
Meanwhile, another WHO expert, Dr. Robert F. Breiman, visited an
atypical pneumonia patient who has infected 21 of his family
members with the disease.
Data about this patient and his family is valuable for doctors,
Breiman said.
(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2003)