CHINA: The World Health Organisation has said the world should be free of the SARS virus within the next two to three weeks, but it has warned the disease could emerge in China again next winter.
Mr David Heymann, director of the WHO's communicable diseases division, yesterday said he expected Taiwan and Toronto - the only two areas still regarded as zones where the disease could be transmitted - to be given a clean bill of health by the first week of July.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which is believed to have jumped from animals to humans in southern China late last year, has killed more than 800 people worldwide, infected some 8,500, trimmed economic growth forecasts and cost billions of dollars in lost businesses.
Hong Kong and China, which were the most severely affected, were given the all-clear by WHO this month and Taiwan and Toronto are expected to follow soon.
"If these two countries have no reintroduction or no new cases then by the first week of July all countries should be off the list and therefore we can say that transmission has been interrupted in human populations," Mr Heymann said.
Taiwan's last SARS patient was isolated on June 15th.
Mr Heymann however said there was a risk the disease could once again be transmitted to human populations from animals in southern China in November or December of this year and that China's efforts at future prevention would be a major focus of attention at this weekend's heath ministers' meeting in Bangkok. - (Reuters)