East Asia steps up SARS cooperation

East Asia steps up SARS cooperation

Eileen Ng, Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

East Asian countries including China agreed Saturday to
coordinate their battle against SARS and called for strict
screening at exit points to bar suspected carriers from leaving.

Health ministers laying the groundwork for an extraordinary
SARS summit on Tuesday in Bangkok issued a communique urging
their governments to devote enough resources to fight the "global
threat" posed by the disease.

The call to action was made by the 10-member Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and key partners China, Japan and
South Korea as the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that no
one carrying the virus must be allowed to move freely.

"We cannot afford to miss a single person," WHO regional
director Shigeru Omi told the special meeting on Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome, an extreme form of pneumonia for which
there is no cure or vaccine.

The SARS death toll is inching towards 300 with more than
5,000 cases in over two dozen countries. The most badly affected
areas are China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada.

The ministers stressed that "even one single infectious case
can lead into a serious outbreak unless rigorous measures are
taken" and vowed to "ensure that persons suspected of SARS should
not be allowed to travel."

Authorities at airports, seaports, river ports and land entry
points were told to collaborate with healthcare workers to
undertake stringent pre-departure screening of passengers for
international travel.

SARS suspects are to be referred promptly to health care
facilities, and persons who have been in contact with them are to
be put under surveillance.

The countries will make it mandatory for all travelers from
affected countries to fill up SARS health declaration forms. They
will also disinfect aircraft and institute in-flight management
of suspected SARS cases who develop symptoms on board.

"We are at a crossroads. What we decide today and at the heads
of state meeting on Tuesday will determine the future course of
this outbreak," the WHO's Omi told the ministers.

"We must be absolutely relentless in our search for every
possible SARS case. We must use every weapon at our disposal.
The world is watching us."

The disease erupted in southern China in November but only
became recognized as a major health threat last month. Beijing
has been widely criticized for failing to make a full disclosure
of the outbreak until it began spreading rapidly overseas.

In the six weeks since the WHO issued a global health alert on
March 12, the disease has caused widespread panic and economic
disruption in affected countries.

Deputy Health Minister Huang Jiefu gave an overview of the
SARS situation in China, which was commended for its increased
transparency and cooperation.

Following international criticism of China's initial response
to SARS, Health Minister Zhang Wenkang has resigned and Beijing
mayor Meng Xuenong sacked for an apparent cover-up.

The joint communique issued Saturday said an expert group
would evaluate a proposal to set up an ASEAN center for disease
control.

Thailand was tasked to strengthen capacity building for
epidemiological surveillance, Indonesia to explore using the
Internet to boost exchange of information, and Malaysia to
strengthen laboratory capacity and quality assurance for disease
surveillance.