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CDC pledges to monitor SARS situation

Ambulance workers wearing protective gear are disinfected yesterday after accompanying an illegal Chinese immigrant, suspected of having SARS, to a hospital in Kinmen. The immigrant, a pregnant woman, had exhibited a high fever during her stay at a Kinmen detention center. PHOTO: CNA

The Center for Disease Control will continue to watch closely for any resurgence of SARS in this country and will offer SARS advice for the May 20 presidential inauguration, Director-General Su Ih-jen (蘇益仁) said yesterday.

Su said the center will continue to monitor the SARS situation but will not offer SARS advice to the government until May 10 with regard to the inauguration.

The center will recommend which level the country should be on in terms of its anti-SARS efforts after May 10, Su said.

He called for the public to refrain from taking part in mass public gatherings such as the presidential inauguration ceremony if they have traveled to China, Hong Kong or Macau over the past two weeks or they have developed a fever.

The Department of Health has a four-level SARS alert system -- Zero, A, B and C -- with level C being the highest level of alert.

It upgraded the nation's epidemic-prevention mobilization level against SARS from zero to level A last Saturday after Beijing raised the number of confirmed SARS cases in China.

Under the level A alert mechanism, all inbound and outbound passengers are required to have their temperatures taken and to fill out SARS questionnaires. All passengers arriving from China, Hong Kong and Macau have to exercise self-health management, including regular hand-washing and taking their temperatures.

Employees of all government agencies and institutions are advised to take their temperatures frequently.

A researcher at a private biotechnology company caused jitters over the past few days after he visited Beijing and developed a fever upon returning to Taiwan.

After three rounds of lab examination of his throat swabs, the researcher was declared SARS-free on Tuesday.

While in Beijing from April 19 to April 24, the researcher visited a lab where one of the latest SARS cases had been reported.

His was the second case in this country of an individual being monitored for possible SARS infection since the disease subsided in China last summer.

Last December a researcher with the military Institute of Preventive Medicine Research inadvertently infected himself while working with the SARS viruses at his lab. He recovered.
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