CHINA: The World Health Organisation announced yesterday that it was extending its warning against non-essential travel due to the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome to Tianjin and the Inner Mongolia province in China and Taipei in Taiwan.
"In addition to Beijing and Guangdong and Shanxi, where we have made recommendations on travel in the past, we're now recommending that unnecessary travel be postponed for Taiwan, Tianjin and Inner Mongolia," said Mr David Heymann of WHO's communicable diseases unit.
The WHO said in a statement that the advisory covered Taipei.
"That's because in these areas the outbreaks are going on, they're increasing rapidly and we're not able to do the assessment that shows these places are safe," Heymann told reporters.
The WHO's assessment is based on the extent of the outbreak in an area - including the number of new cases every day - the pattern of local transmission and whether or not there are cases of disease being exported from the area.
"Travel alerts remain in effect for all those countries where there is local transmission," Mr Heymann said.
More than 7,000 probable cases of SARS have been reported from 29 countries since the outbreak of the pneumonia-like disease was first noticed in March, with a total of more than 500 deaths, according to data from the WHO and national health authorities.
Of the total, 4,698 cases have occurred in China, with 224 deaths, while Taiwan has reported 131 cases and 13 deaths.
The WHO first issued an unprecedented warning against non-essential travel to Hong Kong and the neighbouring Chinese Guangdong province on April 2nd in a bid to halt the spread of the disease.
It was extended on April 23rd to Beijing, northern China's Shanxi province and the Canadian city of Toronto, but last week the WHO lifted the warning on Toronto after Canada promised better screening for travellers leaving the country.
The WHO's infectious diseases head praised Taiwan's efforts to contain SARS after the announcement that the advice against travel was being extended to cover the country.
But the WHO reiterated its fears about the possible spread of SARS deeper into China. It warned that there were still problems with a lack of cooperation between some provincial authorities and the central government.
Mr Heymann said "if the government fully commits in China, and that commitment includes making available the resources necessary to strengthen health systems, that this disease can be contained and we hope, be driven back to nature."
Many other countries have now gone 20 days - twice the incubation period for the disease - without a new case, implying that the deadly virus was not being passed on locally, according to WHO.
The countries are Brazil, Britain, Kuwait, Ireland, Romania, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The WHO also issued special travel precautions for delegates from the 192 countries due to attend its annual assembly in Geneva from May 19th.
It warned delegates who have had contacts with SARS cases or hospitals treating the virus in the last 10 days not to travel to the two-week meeting. - (AFP)