The World Health Organization (WHO) believes the world is better prepared to deal with a possible outbreak of SARS this year, the head of the agency said on Monday.
WHO Director-General Lee Jong-Wook was speaking in Australia just days after China reported the first death apparently due to a recurrence of the potentially deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome since a major epidemic of the virus last year.
He said there was no need to impose a quarantine or issue a travel advisory for any countries at this stage.
“I think we’re better prepared,” Lee told reporters in Melbourne ahead of a world health promotion conference.
“Now we know what’s causing this....We know a great deal. Many countries spent a great deal of resources to prepare for SARS this year,” he said.
First death of the year
The head of the Geneva-based watchdog said that all the cases reported in China so far were linked and Chinese authorities were acting promptly to control the outbreak.
“It was very reassuring to see and to know that now the government of China is very open in discussing this issue and they are sharing this information, which is very encouraging, and our global surveillance network has been alerted on this issue,” Lee said.
The latest death was the first suspected of being tied to SARS since last year’s outbreak that killed more than 800 people, spread alarm across the world and hit economies across Asia as tourism and investment slumped.
“We’re not going to issue any travel guideline to any country at this point of time. Of course we will be watching and we will make adjustments later. But as of today there’s no need to issue any travel guideline,” Lee said.
