The Department of Health yesterday dismissed a rumor that several severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) patients have died and emphasized the SARS outbreak is still under control.
"I say this to everybody: nobody has died of SARS so far," said Lee Lung-teng (
"If your family members or relatives have been infected with SARS, please don't think their illness is worse than cancer. Don't lose confidence in yourself and your family because of the disease," Lee said.
Lee made the call after a man hanged himself in Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital (TMHH) after believing his wife to be infected with SARS.
"Our health workers need to take up the responsibility to take care of SARS patients so that the public's confidence [in our medical system] can be restored. I hope people won't lose the will to live because of SARS," he said.
Lee made the remarks after Friday's chaotic scenes of health workers attempting to force their way out of TMHH after authorities sealed off the hospital.
According to Lee, the turmoil at the hospital has led Jim Lando, an US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC) official staying in Taiwan to help monitor the outbreak to say, "Taipei City is out of order."
"Last night [Friday night], I was in a computer-linked meeting with the TMHH to get a handle on the situation in the hospital. The hospital was noisy when I finally went online," Lee said.
At that time Lando reported back by phone to the USCDC headquarters in Atlanta that the city was out of order. Lee said he immediately told Lando everything was still under control.
"The Executive Yuan and the Taipei City Government have been cooperating to handle the hospital's outbreak. Although the outbreak was not perfectly under control, all isolation measures inside the hospital have been implemented," Lee said.
Lee said the behavior of the health workers who tried to escape was "intolerable."
The two USCDC officials in Taiwan visited TMHH yesterday to see for themselves the situation in the hospital, Lee said.
Meanwhile, Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲), director-general of the health department, said on Friday night that the nation has entered the second level of the department's three-level plan to contain the SARS outbreak.
According to the department, the nation entered level 1 when the first SARS case was brought into Taiwan. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) originally planned to enter the second level after the country's "probable" SARS cases exceeded 200.
Lee said although Taiwan only had 55 probable cases as of yesterday, the DOH has decided to enter level 2 in order to implement stricter measures to contain the epidemic.
According to the CDC, level 3 will be launched after "probable" cases exceed 500.
The CDC's four domestic containment measures of level 2 are: suspending activities in communities where SARS cases have been increasing; establishing temporary community disease checkpoints to monitor the entrance and exit of residents; suspending community schools for 10 to 14 days; and closing work places for 10 to 14 days where more than two SARS cases have been reported.
At level 2, the Executive Yuan can issue an emergency order and the Mainland Affairs Council can close the three small links with China, according to the CDC's plan.
According to the CDC, probable SARS cases have increased to 55 as of yesterday, six more than the previous day's record.
The six new probable cases all came from TMHH, Lee said. The CDC said reported SARS cases nationwide have reached 286 as of yesterday.
Seventy-two of them were suspected cases and 68 cases were still to be verified. Ninety-one cases have been ruled out as SARS, according to the CDC.
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