China Vows Transparent SARS War
Fri April 18, 2003 03:26 AM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Communist Party leadership, accused of half-hearted cooperation with the world on the SARS outbreak and masking its own numbers, has ordered an all-out -- and open -- war against the deadly virus.
The powerful Politburo Standing Committee said all officials had to come clean on all aspects of what it said would be a long and tough fight against a disease that has spread to about 25 countries, killed 164 people and infected more than 3,500.
"There must be no delay and no deceit in reporting," Friday's state newspapers quoted the committee as saying, after a special meeting chaired by party boss Hu Jintao.
The nine-man body held Thursday's meeting just one day after World Health Organisation experts accused Beijing of not reporting all its cases, saying the city might have up to 200 SARS cases instead of the 37 reported officially.
City officials ignored the WHO charge on Thursday, refusing to change their tally, and the national government said it had acted responsibly since the first SARS case appeared in the southern province of Guangdong last November.
But on Friday, the party mouthpiece People's Daily devoted about five pages and more than 20 separate items to coverage of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, another sign the party was ratcheting up pressure on officials.
And some local governments began releasing figures on suspected SARS patients after weeks of reporting only confirmed infections. Beijing tallied 15 suspected SARS patients, the English-language China Daily said.
ASEAN BALKS
The illness has already spread to 10 provinces, regions and major cities in the world's most populous nation and there are fears the disease may spread further when 100 million Chinese travel during a week-long holiday in early May.
"Despite marked progress in SARS control work, the task ahead remains arduous and complicated," the Politburo committee said.
Virtually all newspapers reported the demand from the committee that leaders throughout the vast country "personally oversee" efforts to control the spread of SARS.
State media reported two more deaths on Friday, taking the toll to 67. The WHO reported 25 fresh SARS cases, bringing the national total to 1,482.
But it remained to be seen whether the tongue-lashing would defuse some criticism from abroad that China was very late in telling the world it was facing a new disease when SARS broke out and then slow to share its data.
Underlining neighbors' concerns, the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations has asked Beijing to postpone an annual meeting of senior officials originally scheduled for next week in southern China, diplomats told Reuters.
Southeast Asian leaders will meet in Bangkok on April 29 to hammer out ways of tackling the virus and its economic impact.
The disease leapt into neighboring Hong Kong, the former British territory of seven million people where the numbers of deaths and cases almost equal those in China.
From there, air travelers spread it far and wide, changing lives and business, disrupting sporting events and threatening serious economic damage.
Hong Kong and Singapore, also hit very hard by the virus, are checking airline passengers for fever. India and Australia confirmed their first cases.
Canada, the only non-Asian country where people have died of SARS, feared hundreds more might be at risk after a few residents of a Toronto high-rise apartment building showed symptoms consistent with the mysterious illness.
Brazil began screening cargo ships from high-risk areas.
But the WHO did confirm SARS, which is contagious, sometimes fatal and has no known cure, was caused by a member of the coronavirus family never before seen in humans.
That means doctors now know what they are looking for and diagnosis will be much easier. Experts said they were optimistic the disease could be controlled using existing measures.
Economists estimate the epidemic has already caused at least $30 billion in losses worldwide and will pose more of a threat to Asia's economic growth than the war on Iraq, through lower tourist earnings and reduced consumer spending. REUTERS MB JA |
