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Country to be cut from SARS list, health officials say

The World Health Organization (WHO) will likely remove Taiwan from its list of SARS-affected areas later this month or early next month, the head of the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday.

DOH Director-General Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said the country will be qualified for removal from the WHO's list of SARS-affected areas around July 5 if there are no new infections in the next two weeks. The most recent SARS case in Taiwan began to show symptoms on June 15.

No new SARS deaths or cases were reported in the nation yesterday, the seventh-straight day without new infections.

As of yesterday, only Beijing, Taiwan and Toronto were on the WHO's list of SARS-affected areas, Hong Kong having been eliminated yesterday.

Places that have been hit with SARS must go 20 consecutive days without any new infections to be removed from the list, according to the WHO.

According to Chen, Taiwan hopes to be taken off the list before July 5 if the 20-day criteria starts from the date the last confirmed SARS patient in Taiwan was put into isolation in hospital. The last SARS patient was put into isolation June 6.

The WHO dropped its travel advisory against Taiwan on June 17.

As of yesterday, the number of people in Taiwan who have been probable SARS cases stood at 692 with 84 deaths.

The flu-like disease has killed more than 800 people and sickened nearly 8,400 others, mostly in Asia, since it first emerged in China's southern province of Guangdong last November.

In related news, the Taiwan Textile Federation will host a reception today to introduce several kinds of anti-virus protective clothing and materials jointly developed by more than 20 manufacturers in the textile industry.

An official with the federation said yesterday that the protective clothing and materials have met test standards of the American Society for Testing Materials.

He said textile manufacturers began to pool their technical resources to develop the clothing at the end of April under the sponsorship of the federation when anti-virus protective clothing was in great demand due to the SARS outbreak.
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