SARS could be endemic says WHO
The World Health Organisation warned today that Sars could yet become an endemic disease if further outbreaks are not contained.
To prevent such a human tragedy from occurring, all affected governments must enforce meticulous screening to detect every new case of Sars, Dr. David Heymann, the Who’s chief of communicable diseases, told an emergency summit of Southeast Asian leaders in Bangkok, the Thai capital.
The summit was held to devise ways to deal with severe acute respiratory syndrome, which has taken a heavy toll on the economies of the 10 countries forming the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean.
The summit is meant “to instil confidence among people around the world and show them that the region has come together to work closely and respond to this problem and has the situation under control,” Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said.
Asean comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Heymann, who on Monday had said that the worst is over for Hong Kong, Singapore, Toronto and Vietnam, said today there is no reason to celebrate yet.
“Certainly the risk and the threat of this disease becoming an endemic disease – a usual disease in humans – is still very great,” he said.
He said he left the Asean leaders with four messages including the most important one: “Sars outbreaks can be contained by detecting all cases and making sure there’s protection of people working with those cases.”
His other messages were: an infectious disease in one country is a concern to the entire world information dispensed by Who has helped contain outbreaks in many countries and there is a big discrepancy between the real risk and the perceived risk by the general public of contracting the disease.
He said public health workers have understood that there need to be surveillance systems which detect where the disease is occurring.
However, “the general public has not shown they understand what needs to be done,” said Heymann.
“We also stressed the fact that much of the impact economically is due to a misperception about transmission of this disease by the general public,” he said.
“The general public does not understand completely how this disease is spread,” he said, adding that wearing masks on the streets is futile because Sars is transmitted from close contact with a person.
