"Substantial progress" has been made in anti-SARS cooperation between the World Health Organization (WHO) and Beijing municipality, WHO expert Jeffrey W. McFarland said in Beijing Monday.

The improvement of the newly-developed Beijing SARS database carried out by Chinese experts and the WHO expert team constitute the main achievement, McFarland said during an inspection tour of the Beijing Center for Disease Control.

He visited the center together with WHO expert Philippe Barboza and Zhao Peng-Fei.

The database is useful in research on transmission modes and related information in Beijing and is conducive to SARS prevention and treatment work in the rest of the world, McFarland said.

Director of the center Liu Zejun said the establishment of the new database was initiated on April 24 to systemize the collection and processing of SARS case information. The new system includes regional disease situations, information on individual cases, a chronological analysis and subject analysis.

The database will coordinate the data already gathered and process new case information. "We hope that the WHO experts will make further suggestions on improving the database, which is an absolutely new system for us," Liu said.

The WHO experts scanned some original documents of SARS cases and learned about how the data was collected.

McFarland said the isolation of some SARS epidemic-affected buildings and personnel is a prudent policy. Although the effect might not be seen for several months, "it is better to be overly-cautious than not sufficiently cautious".

There is no need for the public to panic, McFarland said, noting that the SARS risk is real but "very, very low".

WHO expert Barboza suggested the Beijing Municipality further strengthen its surveillance system and enhance investigation of sporadic cases. "(The fight against SARS) is a war, we need little spies to find out where to shoot," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2003)