WHO declared Beijing to be free of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) on June 24 and lifted its travel warning on the Chinese capital, which was the last city in the world to be under a WHO travel advisory.“Today is a milestone in the fight against SARS, not only in China but in the world”, Shigeru Omi, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, told Reuters at a Beijing news conference.After careful analysis, WHO has concluded that the risk to travellers to Beijing is now minimal”, said Omi.The last new case in Beijing was isolated on May 29. Since then several suspect cases have been considered but have been ruled out as SARS.A city is removed from WHO's travel advisory list if it has had no SARS cases for 20 days.Beijing had the largest outbreak of SARS with 2521 probable cases and 191 deaths; followed by Hong Kong, with 1755 cases and 296 deaths; and Guangdong province, China, with 1511 cases and 57 deaths.WHO's announcement came after the cases in Beijing's hospitals fell to 43, far below the WHO standard of fewer than 60 cases required to withdraw the advisory.WHO also cancelled the travel advisory for four provinces and regions surrounding Beijing and declared Hong Kong free of SARS on Monday. However, WHO said it needed more information on how SARS spread in Beijing.WHO was also concerned about the rapid drop in new cases in China. Medical records showed that Beijing had traced the person or place of origin in two-thirds of new cases since mid-May, WHO's Daniel Chin told the news conference.China began daily reporting of SARS cases in early April, when Beijing reported 29 cases and four deaths. At the peak of the outbreak, towards the end of April, Beijing was reporting more than 100 new cases every day, said WHO.WHO lifted travel warnings against Toronto, in Canada, and Taiwan earlier this month. However, it said there is still a risk of spreading the infection in these two areas. In fact, Toronto reported two deaths from SARS on Sunday and WHO recommends that all travellers leaving Toronto and Taiwan should be screened before leaving.Worldwide, there have been 8459 cases of SARS and 805 deaths since the disease first appeared in southern China last November.
Authors: Sh X Wang; Y M Li; B C Sun; S W Zhang; W H Zhao; M T Wei; K X Chen; X L Zhao; Z L Zhang; M Krahn; A C Cheung; P P Wang Journal: Epidemiol Infect Date: 2005-12-22 Impact factor: 2.451
Authors: Jing He; Dan Feng; Sake J de Vlas; Hongwei Wang; Arnaud Fontanet; Panhe Zhang; Sabine Plancoulaine; Fang Tang; Lin Zhan; Hong Yang; Tianbao Wang; Jan H Richardus; J Dik F Habbema; Wuchun Cao Journal: BMC Infect Dis Date: 2006-07-06 Impact factor: 3.090