The Cabinet yesterday protested against China's alleged interference with the World Health Organization's (WHO) treatment of Taiwan as President Chen Shui-bian (
"While we'll provide the WHO with more information about our efforts in restraining the SARS outbreak, we're strongly protesting China's irrational behavior because it not only interferes with the WHO's professionalism but also endangers the overall health of the 23 million Taiwanese," Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) quoted Premier Yu Shyi-kun as saying after the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday morning.
Media speculation suggests that China has pressured the WHO to postpone removing Taiwan from the WHO's travel advisory list until China itself has been removed from the list.
On Sunday, the Department of Health sent a letter to WHO Director-General Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, requesting that the nation be removed from the travel advisory because it had met the requirements set forth by the WHO.
After the government reported six SARS cases on Tuesday, the WHO turned down the nation's request on Tuesday, requesting the department provide more information to confirm the six suspected exportation of SARS cases.
Calling the WHO's decision "unfair," Center for Disease Control Director Su Ih-jen (
"While Hong Kong and Guangdong Province were removed from the list when they continued to export SARS cases, I don't understand why the WHO turned down our request when we don't have any confirmed exported SARS cases," Su said.
However, Iain Simpson, a WHO spokesman in Geneva, told The Associated Press that Taiwan has only met one of three key requirements for canceling the travel warning -- showing that its most recent three-day average of new cases is five or less.
But Taiwan still has to meet the two other requirements: having fewer than 60 active cases in hospitals and being able to show that the virus isn't being exported, Simpson said.
Steven Kuo, spokesman for SARS Control Committee, told reporters that according to the latest count yesterday, the nation's hospitals only had 27 active patients, or people who got sick within the past two weeks.
But Simpson said WHO has counted 286 active cases. ``According to the way we calculate it, they are still a long way from coming off that list,'' he said.
The WHO official also said it's not clear whether Taiwan has been exporting cases.
At a daily SARS briefing, Taiwanese officials said WHO has requested more information about six cases involving people who developed SARS symptoms after leaving Taiwan.
Su said the WHO was being unfair because the cases were old. ``None of the countries where those six people traveled to is treating them as SARS cases,'' he said.
Only one of the cases was recent, he said. It involved a Taiwanese traveler who developed a fever -- a key SARS symptom -- after he or she went to Sao Paulo, Brazil, on June 4.
The WHO wants the government to get the person -- who's gender wasn't provided -- to have a chest X-ray and other SARS tests so that the agency can confirm the traveler is SARS-free, Su said.
Lin yesterday also dismissed China's claim that it had "agreed" to let Taiwan's health officials participate in a upcoming global SARS conference organized by WHO in Malaysia.
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