World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Gro Harlem
Brundtland said Sunday that the spreading SARS epidemic "can still
be contained," calling the disease the "first global epidemic of
the 21st century."
The international community still has a "window of opportunity to
avoid the virus becoming endemic, such as flu and HIV... to contain
it -- lessen it where it is, and stop it spreading," Brundtland
told BBC's Breakfast with Frost television program.
"We have a chance to do it now if we work together globally, across
the countries, and do what is necessary to control the outbreak,"
she said.
"Meanwhile unless every country takes seriously that there is
achallenge...we will not have done the right thing with the first
epidemic of this century," Brundtland said.
Strict new measures were being implemented in Asia, at the heart of
the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak, she
said.
Meanwhile, she said advocating tough action such as advising
against travel to Toronto, Canada, was not excessive.
"We are doing what is prudent and necessary...before (the disease)
becomes global and constant," she said. "If this outbreakreaches
poor, undeveloped parts of Africa, we are in trouble."
SARS has claimed about 300 lives worldwide and infected about 5,000
since it emerged late last year. It has no known cure and has been
carried to more than 20 countries by travelers.
(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2003)
