The Ministry of Health Friday urged medical workers across the
Taiwan Straits to join hands in the fight against severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS).
The central government had been concerned about the situation in
Taiwan Province since the first case of SARS was reported there in
March this year, said Liu Peilong, director of the Taiwan, Hong
Kong, Macao affairs department under the Ministry of Health,
Friday.
The ministry wanted to exchange information on SARS and other
public health issues with relevant organizations in Taiwan, he
added.
The central government was willing to provide assistance to
Taiwanese people jointly with international organizations,
including the World Health Organization (WHO), said Qi Xiaoqiu,
director of the ministry's disease control department.
The ministry would take account of the requests from medical
workers in Taiwan for technical assistance from the WHO and respond
quickly after talks with the WHO, Qi added.
The WHO experts had been invited to attend a cross-Strait medical
seminar to be held later this month, he said.
The seminar on SARS, sponsored by the Chinese Medical Association
and Chinese Preventive Medical Association, would be attended by
doctors from across the Taiwan Straits.
Detailed information on how to prevent SARS, based on the
experience in south China's Guangdong Province, had been sent to
relevant medical institutions in Taiwan through non-governmental
channels, including guidelines for the treatment of SARS, Liu
said.
The latest information on the prevention and treatment of SARS on
the Chinese mainland was put on line promptly and updated data on
the WHO web site was also translated into Chinese, he said.
The ministry welcomed medical workers from Taiwan to come to the
mainland and mainland experts were willing to visit Taiwan to
improve exchanges, he added.
The ministry has already received some doctors from Taiwan at the
request of the Taipei Medical Association.
(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2003)