"Substantial progress" has been made in anti-SARS cooperation
between the World Health Organization (WHO) and Beijing
municipality, WHO expert Jeffrey W. McFarland said in Beijing
Monday.
The improvement of the newly-developed Beijing SARS database
carried out by Chinese experts and the WHO expert team constitute
the main achievement, McFarland said during an inspection tour of
the Beijing Center for Disease Control.
He
visited the center together with WHO expert Philippe Barboza and
Zhao Peng-Fei.
The database is useful in research on transmission modes and
related information in Beijing and is conducive to SARS prevention
and treatment work in the rest of the world, McFarland said.
Director of the center Liu Zejun said the establishment of the new
database was initiated on April 24 to systemize the collection and
processing of SARS case information. The new system includes
regional disease situations, information on individual cases, a
chronological analysis and subject analysis.
The database will coordinate the data already gathered and process
new case information. "We hope that the WHO experts will make
further suggestions on improving the database, which is an
absolutely new system for us," Liu said.
The WHO experts scanned some original documents of SARS cases and
learned about how the data was collected.
McFarland said the isolation of some SARS epidemic-affected
buildings and personnel is a prudent policy. Although the effect
might not be seen for several months, "it is better to be
overly-cautious than not sufficiently cautious".
There is no need for the public to panic, McFarland said, noting
that the SARS risk is real but "very, very low".
WHO expert Barboza suggested the Beijing Municipality further
strengthen its surveillance system and enhance investigation of
sporadic cases. "(The fight against SARS) is a war, we need little
spies to find out where to shoot," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2003)