The World Health Organization has expressed cautious optimism about China's ability in curbing the spread of the SARS epidemic.

The organization says as new cases of SARS infection are decreasing in China's Guangdong Province, the international community has a reason to be optimistic to a certain degree about China's ability in curbing the spread of the disease.

Julie Hall, a WHO official in charge of the network monitoring epidemics said in Geneva that SARS cases were reported in China's Guangdong as early as five months ago. Recently, new cases in the province are decreasing. But she added that China still has a long way to go in order to bring the infectious disease under control.

Earlier, WHO's China representative Henk Bekedam said in Beijing that China has made "very positive" efforts in mobilizing people to fight SARS, but the health authorities need to do more to calm the public fear.

The WHO official suggests that health authorities in Beijing provide more details of SARS patients and how they contracted the disease so as to reduce unnecessary public panic.

He says that anyone with a fever should go to a clinic and see a doctor, regardless of whether they have SARS or not, instead of traveling and going for work.

The WHO official believes that the fight against SARS will lead to an improvement in the health system of China. He predicts that in three or four years China's health system will be able to deal with all the health challenges in the country.

On Thursday, six WHO experts currently in Shanghai divided into three groups to visit three designated local hospitals for the treatment of foreign SARS patients. They discussed cases with local experts, focusing on timely and effective treatment of the disease according to the clinical symptoms and diagnostic standards.

China Health Ministry has issued a circular, demanding that health departments at all levels across the country report SARS cases every day, even no new cases are discovered. No reporting will not be allowed.

The circular says that starting from Saturday, SARS reports will be input into China's information network for disease control, in order to improve the efforts in this field. It requires all local disease control departments to report correct information to ensure the smooth run of the network.

China's Ministry of Health has ordered health authorities at all levels to keep a close eye on SARS patients, suspected SARS patients and those having close contact with the above two kinds of people and promptly quarantine those infected with the disease.

The Ministry of civil affairs has also ordered all communities to implement measures to prevent and control SARS and ensure the basic needs of those patients having financial difficulties.

The Ministry of Education has called on all colleges and universities to strengthen their efforts to protect the health of students.

Meanwhile, the Chinese capital of Beijing has shut down a major hospital and put more than 2,000 employees under observation for SARS.

The People's Hospital of Peking University is being disinfected and its patients and more than 2,000 employees moved to one of six hospitals in Beijing designated to handle SARS.

Chinese Vice premier Wu Yi told a national teleconference that the current national public health campaign should center on the prevention and treatment of the SARS epidemic.

She called on all people and institutions to improve indoor and outdoor sanitation so as to prevent the spread of the disease. Special attention should also be paid to SARS prevention work in western and central China and in rural areas.

China's Health Ministry says by eight o'clock on Wednesday evening, the Chinese mainland reported a total of 2,422 confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS cases.

125 new SARS cases, 1,278 suspected cases and four deaths had been reported on the Chinese mainland.

Altogether 110 SARS patients have died, while 1,254 have been discharged from hospital upon recovery.

In 24 hours, Beijing reported 89 new SARS cases and four deaths, and 8 recovered. Altogether SARS cases in Beijing reached 774, of them 64 had been discharged from hospital after recovery and 39 have died.

Four provinces, two autonomous regions and Tianjin also reported new SARS cases, of them Guangdong added 15, Inner Mongolia 11, Shanxi 5, Henan 2, Guangxi, Tianjin and Anhui each had one more SARS case.

(cri.com April 26, 2003)