HEALTH: Asian Leaders Pledge Joint War against SARS

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Apr 29 2003 (IPS) - In a sign of regional solidarity, leaders of South-east Asian nations and China pledged at special summit here Tuesday to use unity, shared resources and openness to combat the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

For one, the leaders agreed that their countries would stop people suspected to have SARS from travelling abroad – going further than the initial measures limited to preventing those suspected to have the virus from coming into a country.

At the same time, the leaders of China and the 10-member Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed to keep the borders they share open, rather than face further economic consequences from closing borders as a protective measure.

”ASEAN will be taking coordinated efforts to control SARS, including screening all those going on international travel,” Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said at a press conference Tuesday evening at the end of the special summit on SARS.

A call by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to set up a special fund to pursue research on SARS in the region was also endorsed by the leaders of ASEAN.

Together, China and ASEAN have been the hardest hit by the spread of SARS, whether it is because of the physical toll of the illness or its economic effects. Apart from China and its Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, ASEAN members Singapore and Vietnam have been the worst hit by SARS. Others, from Thailand and across East Asia, have been hurt by major drops in tourism.

China’s Wen offered 10 million yuan (1.2 million U.S. dollars) as an initial contribution toward the China-ASEAN Special Fund. Thaksin offered 250,000 U.S. dollars from the Thai government and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, 100,000 dollars.

China’s presence at the meeting demonstrates further that it is ”committed to the ASEAN region,” added Thaksin. ”We welcome the Chinese proposal to set up the special fund.”

”We briefed the governments on the measures China has taken to combat SARS,” said Wen, whose government came into office a month ago and just this month stepped in to stop the hiding of the extent of the SARS problem there. ”China is in a time of difficulty, but the measure taken by China are there for everyone to see.”

Wen also said the World Health Organisation (WHO) could ”visit any area they want and inspect any hospital of their choice” in China.

In the meeting with ASEAN leaders, he made a case for more information sharing on SARS – and the special fund that was proposed arose from these discussions.

In their joint declaration, the East Asian leaders said their countries would cooperate in research and training efforts on SARS and throw their weight behind an international seminar on control and treatment of the disease to be held in China.

In addition, a joint statement by the leaders of ASEAN identified over 10 measures the countries will pursue to stall the spread of SARS, including the creation of a regional SARS information network.

The 10 members of ASEAN, South-east Asia’s main regional grouping, are Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Besides China and Hong Kong, the other ASEAN countries with high SARS cases are Singapore and Vietnam. On Monday, the WHO removed Vietnam from the list of countries where SARS is transmitted locally.

It also said SARS appears to have peaked in the countries worst hit by the disease, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, and is stabilising there.

However, this has yet to happen in China. Currently, China has over 2,900 cases of which 131 people have died, while Hong Kong has 1,543 cases of which 133 people have died. Singapore has 189 cases, of which 21 people have died and Vietnam has had 63 cases, with five deaths.

The other ASEAN countries, according to the WHO, have had markedly low incidents of the atypical pneumonia. Indonesia, for instance, has two cases in a country of 220 million people. Malaysia has nine cases, the Philippines four, and Thailand, nine.

If Vietnam can stop local transmission of SARS, so can Singapore, Hong Kong and China with ”will, resources and organisation”, Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said Tuesday. ”We achieved our first objective (at this summit), learning from each other.”

Wen said that this exchange of information did not result in any criticism toward China, given that the SARS virus is said to have originated in a southern province of the country in November last year and Beijing had not been forthcoming with information until very recently.

”No one is pointing an accusing finger at anyone,” said Wen, adding that Beijing has called for ”truthful reporting” of SARS incidents from all local authorities across the country.

On Monday, a WHO expert identified China as the key element that will determine victory or failure over SARS. ”China will make or break this disease,” David Heymann, executive director at the U.N. health agency’s communicable diseases cluster, told the media.

The WHO expert also told ASEAN leaders that there is a wide gap between the public perception of the disease and its actual impact – an issue that governments need to address. ”The public perceives the risk to be far greater than the risk actually is,” he added.

At the same time, the WHO welcomed a decision by the health ministers of ASEAN countries, who met ahead in Malaysia over the weekend, to support the poorer countries in the region in establishing public health surveillance systems.

Countries that are already short of doctors and nursing staff will be faced with added burdens if they have find staff to monitor diseases like SARS, says Raj Kumar, head of the research division at the Bangkok-based U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

”There is a need for more aid for these countries,” he adds. ”It should be seen as an international public good, strengthening public health surveillance.”