Director of Taipei City Govern-ment's Bureau of Health yesterday called on the Center for Disease Control (CDC) of the Department of Health to list Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) as a statutory communicable disease in order to efficiently administer the prevention and control of the disease.
Although the call suggested a conflict between the central and the Taipei City Government, Chiu Shu-shih (邱淑媞), director of the city's Bureau of Health, said her suggestion is not a challenge to the central government.
"Issues concerning the SARS cases is a professional issue, not a political one," she said. "I hope people will not politicize [my suggestion] and neglect the seriousness of professional concerns."
Chiu stressed that her suggestion was simply prompted by her expectation that the central government would help the local government to better protect the health of the general public.
"In a bid to prevent the [SARS] disease from spreading as well as to keep the public from panicking due to insufficient information, the CDC should list the disease as a statutory communicable disease," she said at the bureau's press conference yesterday.
"Doing so can serve as a legal basis for health staff when implementing their tasks and controlling the disease," she said.
Chiu said that when health officials carry out disease-prevention work, they could infringe on people's rights by closing schools or companies, providing personal medical records, limitating the mobility of individuals and investigating an individual's health background.
A legal basis is necessary so that prevention work and human rights can both be taken care of when health officials implement their disease-prevention tasks, Chiu said.
Expressing gratitude for Taipei City Government's suggestion, CDC spokesman Chiang Ying-lung (江英隆) said that the suggestion has been included among agenda that were to be discussed during the center's meeting with relevant experts yesterday afternoon.
"In the initial discussion, according to experts' opinions, it is a bit meaningless to list SARS as a type of statutory communicable disease since its pathogen is not yet known," Chiang said.
Chiang added that the center would make known to the public a detailed explanation concerning the issue on whether to list SARS as a type of statutory communicable disease later today.
According to the latest information from the CDC, as of yesterday at 4pm, it has received 27 reports of suspected SARS cases, among which, six of the cases matched the WHO's definition of "probable cases" of SARS.
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