Members of Taiwan's medical profession have issued a strong protest to the World Health Organization (WHO) for its isolation of Taiwan during the worldwide outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Yesterday, the Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan (FMPAT), a private group, sent a letter to the WHO accusing the UN body of seriously breaching its own constitution in is handling Taiwan's SARS epidemic.
FMPAT president Wu Shih-min (
"The WHO constitution says that, `The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition,'" Wu said.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported this country's first SARS cases to the WHO on March 14, but the organization did not include Taiwan amongst the SARS infected areas listed on its Web site until March 18, FMPAT's letter said.
"Taiwan is not part of China. But the WHO's Web site repeatedly listed Taiwan as a province of China. The behavior shows the organization's disrespect for Taiwanese people," the letter said.
In support of its case, the foundation quoted a Central News Agency report from Geneva in which one high-ranking WHO official clearly admitted that the organization's failure to help Taiwan during the SARS outbreak was due to political factors.
China's efforts to block Taiwan from entering the WHO has hindered the investigation of the cause of SARS, the letter said.
The letter also cited a report in The Washington Post which said the Chinese government had instructed its state-owned Xinhua News Agency to hide the truth about the spread of the disease in China.
Such deception by Beijing has endangered the lives of more than 100,000 Taiwanese businessmen based in China, the letter said.
But the SARS epidemic is not the foundation's only grievance with the WHO. In 1997, more than 80 Taiwanese children died during an outbreak of the enterovirus.
According to the foundation, health authorities here did not obtain any information from the WHO during that epidemic simply because Taiwan is not a member of the world body.
Furthermore, after the calamitous 921 earthquake, in which more than 2,000 people died, the WHO neither dispatched rescue teams to Taiwan nor offered any medial aids. The FMPAT charged that was because of China's interference.
"During these crises, we strived to seek the WHO's help through all kinds of channels. But the WHO has simply ignored our pleas because Taiwan was not one of its members," Wu said.
Yesterday, the foundation made three requests to the WHO and expressed its hope that the organization would make up for its previous neglect of Taiwan by granting the requests.
The first request is that the WHO should send experts to Taiwan to help with the SARS outbreak as soon as possible.
The second is that the WHO should invite Taiwan to join the SARS conference scheduled to be held in Hong Kong next week.
The third is that the WHO should accept Taiwan's application to become a member.
Taiwan's current application to become the WHO's observer is humble enough, Wu said. "But if Taiwan can't even become an observer, the government will reconsider whether to directly apply to become a WHO member."
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