Noted Chinese medical expert Zhong Nanshan Tuesday called on
officials, health care workers and the public to guard against a
renewed SARS outbreak.
In
an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Zhong, director of the
Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases, said that the SARS
epidemic on China's mainland was nearing its end, based on the
analysis of how the SARS epidemic developed and ebbed in south
China's Guangdong and Hong Kong.
The downward trend of the epidemic, said Zhong, should be
attributed to the effective anti-SARS measures taken by the Chinese
government.
"However, since large numbers of people are traveling across the
country, the SARS epidemic will probably fluctuate in the future,"
said Zhong. "Guangdong has been taken off the list of SARS-affected
areas by the World Health
Organization (WHO), but Beijing must wait for a while."
Earlier, Zhong had predicted that it would take Guangdong and Hong
Kong about five months to contain SARS.
"It turned out to be shorter. The number of new daily SARS cases
dropped quickly to single-digit figures in Guangdong and Hong
Kong," said Zhong, who is also an academician with the Chinese
Academy of Engineering.
He
said that it was heartening that the downward trend seemed even
more pronounced in the capital.
To
ward off a renewed outbreak, Zhong said the public would have to
learn about personal hygiene, pay close attention to environmental
sanitation and improve physical fitness. In addition, people should
eliminate bad habits.
These bad habits, said Zhong, include eating without washing hands,
spitting and others. The SARS outbreak has made it imperative for
the Chinese people to drop these habits.
He
proposed that China learn from Japan and the Republic of Korea
(ROK) with respect to living habits.
"The fact that both of these countries have escaped the SARS
outbreak can be largely attributed to their good habits," said the
bespectacled man.
Another bad habit that should be discarded is the consumption of
wild animals.
"When many species of wildlife are consumed as delicacies,
ecological balance is disturbed, and we suffer the consequences,"
said Zhong.
Although there is no direct evidence that the SARS virus originated
in wildlife, such as the civet cat or the wild boar, Zhong
considers that it is probably the case.
"The genetic identity of the coronavirus detected in wildlife and
that which has been found to trigger the SARS epidemic indicates
the link," said Zhong.
As
for the prospects for the ongoing fight against SARS, Zhong said
that he was confident that SARS will be eliminated, as predicted by
WHO experts.
The more contagious and deadly a virus, the greater the probability
that it will be eliminated, as mankind would double its efforts to
root out the virus, according to Zhong.
"However, we can't rule out the other possibility," Zhong said.
"That is, that the virus could coexist with human beings for a long
time, like viruses that cause common influenza."
Zhong was here in Beijing to attend a high-level symposium held on
SARS for the ASEAN (the Association for Southeast Asian
Nations) members and China, Japan and the ROK.
(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2003)