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Don't lift advisory on Taiwan: China

China has asked the World Health Organization (WHO) to ignore requests from Taiwan to be removed from the list of places the health body advises people to avoid because of SARS until China is taken off the list, a government source said yesterday.

"China not only continues cheating the WHO about the real SARS situation in the country but has also made an all-out effort to block Taiwan's removal from the WHO's travel-warning list before China," the source told the Taipei Times yesterday.

He said the real situation in China was out of control, with many provinces still facing a serious threat from the disease.

"According to a report from our national security network in China, there is concrete evidence that Beijing is still lying to the international community" about the SARS situation there, the source said.

In Datong, Shanxi Province, more than 70 SARS cases have been identified but Beijing has reported only five to the WHO, according to the source.

Shenyang, in Liaoning Province, has been sealed off, according to the source, with all schools closed and people prohibited from going outside.

He said Beijing had tried its best to conceal the extent of the SARS outbreak there and had interfered with WHO assessments of the situation in Taiwan.

"A WHO official has told our Department of Health [DOH] that Beijing asked the WHO not to remove Taiwan from the travel warning list unless China is also removed," the official said.

The DOH said it was planning to petition the WHO to be removed from the list today if the number of people in the country still infected with SARS falls below 60.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday launched an assessment of the 214 probable SARS cases that are still in hospitals to find out whether they are infectious.

To be described as no longer infectious, a person with SARS has to be fever-free for two days, have a normal white blood cell and platelet count and demonstrate fewer signs of lung infection and coughing, according to the DOH.

DOH Director-general Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday if the assessment found fewer than 60 infectious cases, the DOH will ask the WHO to remove the country from its travel recommendations table today.

Chen said an area needs to fulfill five conditions to be taken off the travel advisory list.

First, there should be no recent reports of internationally exported cases from the area.

Second, the area's pattern of outbreak should show a sustained decline.

Third, the number of new cases must be below five over five consecutive days.

Fourth, all new cases in the past 20 days were only of people who were already identified as contacts of a person with SARS.

Fifth, the total number of people who are still infectious is below 60.

Chen said he was hopeful his request would be accepted based on the experience of Hong Kong.

"By the time Hong Kong sent its application, there were still around 200 SARS patients in its hospitals. These people were convalescing or being treated for other conditions in hospitals," Chen said.

The WHO issued the travel advisory on Taiwan on May 8.

The number of deaths stood at 81 for the eighth consecutive eighth day yesterday. The number of probable cases fell one to 677.
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