Taiwan is hoping that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC) will present Taiwan's achievements in containing severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) at the World Health Assembly (WHA), a senior health official said earlier this week.
Chen Tzay-jinn (陳再晉), director-general of Taiwan's Center for Disease Control, said he really looked forward to Taiwan's works in containing SARS being reported at the WHA, due to be held in Geneva from May 19 to May 28.
"I really hope our battle against SARS can be reported to the WHA either by our own delegation or by the USCDC," Chen said.
Lee Lung-teng (
The nation's effective containment of SARS has impressed USCDC officials visiting Taiwan to help control the epidemic, Lee said.
According to Lee, Scott Dowell, director of the International Emerging Infections Program and one of the first two USCDC officials arriving at Taiwan to help combat SARS, personally wrote a letter to Twu Shiing-jer (
Shortly after the outbreak of SARS in Taiwan, Dowell and his colleague Sonja Olsen, chief of epidemiology in the program, were dispatched here to study the disease.
The USCDC officials were impressed with Taiwan's hospital facilities and medical system and suggested a Vietnam-based US diplomat send his child, who was suspected of being infected with SARS, to Taipei for treatment.
Owing to China's opposition to Taiwan's joining the WHA as an observer, Taiwan has never had a chance to make a report to the WHA.
Ambassador-at-large Wu Yung-tung (吳運東), who is also president of the Taiwan Medical Association (TMA), will be joining the assembly of the World Medical Association (WMA) in France from May 14 to May 18, an occasion viewed as a warm-up for the WHA.
Nevertheless, Wu, who has participated in the WHA for the past few years, admitted even the WMA has not placed a report on Taiwan's SARS containment on its agenda.
Wu said the TMA is adopting a low-profile attitude to earn more countries' support for Taiwan's entering the WHA as an observer.
"Many countries agree that Taiwan's joining the WHA is altogether right and justified. But few countries are willing to take real action to back our entry" Lee said.
Nevertheless, Lee said, China's inefficiency and dishonesty in dealing with its SARS outbreak has earned criticism from prestigious magazines such as The Lancet, Nature and Time.
"It is possible China's failure in containing the epidemic has weakened its voice in the WHA opposing Taiwan's participation as an observer," Lee said.
China is unhappy about Taiwan's outstanding performance in fighting SARS and has been pressing other countries not to join an international symposium on SARS to be held in Taipei tomorrow and Monday, Lee said.
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