WHO needs more
powers to tackle SARS



"WHAT does SARS mean?" a Filipino friend asked me by cellular phone text message this week. Although I had been editing stories the whole previous week about this new disease, I had to look up the acronym's meaning in a story that had been published: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

But wasn't that name a bit redundant? Didn't "severe" and "acute" basically mean the same thing? Obviously the bureaucrats at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, had gotten a little carried away. But squabbling over the new disease's name was the least of WHO officials' problems. Critics wanted to know why it had taken the organization so long to issue a worldwide alert about the disease, and why did it take so long to issue a travel advisory warning travelers to avoid going to Hong Kong and Guangdong province in China, the epicenters of the outbreak?

So far 78 deaths worldwide have been linked to SARS, and 2,311 suspected cases have been reported. These alarming figures have put health authorities on alert around the globe, with Asia hit the hardest. It has also prompted the neo-conservative Wall Street Journal newspaper in the United States to call for a suspension of all flights between the US and China, until this outbreak of SARS is contained.

But can such a disease, with symptoms so similar to those of regular flu (high fever, dry cough, shortness of breath, muscular pain, and loss of appetite), really ever be contained, especially in this age of jet travel?

Health officials now believe that the disease may have first surfaced in China's Guangdong province in November 2002. From there it moved to Hong Kong, then Hanoi, Vietnam, and then by a single Singapore Airlines flight to Frankfurt, Germany, after a flight attendant came down with the disease. Cases have been reported in such far-flung places as Canada and Germany.

The major culprit in the slow reporting of SARS cases has been the Chinese government, who until just a few days ago had not reported the full extent of the SARS outbreak in China. This four-month silence left health officials in other countries wondering where the disease had originated, and what caused it. Doctors are still trying to figure out what type of virus causes this deadly disease, one that doesn't respond to antibiotics.

For the moment, the WHO is downplaying just how contagious the disease really is. At first, doctors believed that it could only be spread through direct contact with exhaled droplets from an infected person (i.e., being sneezed on, or kissing someone). But then, doctors began warning that the virus could remain alive on surfaces for a while, such as on the buttons of an elevator. In the Philippines, authorities were warning importers of second-hand clothes from Hong Kong that the garments could carry the disease. Whether they were supposed to temporarily stop importing such clothes, or disinfect them thoroughly, was not clear.

With two Filipino women dead from SARS in Hong Kong, doctors have been deployed at Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport to screen arriving passengers for symptoms of SARS. But with only 11 beds available in San Lazaro Hospital's isolation ward, I wonder how Manila plans to cope with potentially large numbers of SARS cases.

Already fear has gripped many Filipinos, with some OFWs in Saudi Arabia reported to have postponed vacation plans for the moment until the SARS outbreak is contained. With many flights to the Philippines from the Kingdom routed through Singapore and Hong Kong, it seems like a wise decision to postpone travel until later.

In the meantime, the WHO should be given more powers to deal with outbreaks such as the SARS one. Currently, it can only issue advisories that it has no powers to enforce. Ideally, it would have the power to stop most travel to a particular area in which an outbreak of a deadly and contagious disease has occurred.

Singapore and Hong Kong have quarantined people living in certain areas where there have been outbreaks of SARS. One whole housing estate block in Hong Kong was cordoned off, and its inhabitants were then moved to the countryside to stop the disease from spreading further. Although this may seem like an extreme measure, and certainly restricts the freedom of movement of those affected, perhaps it is the only way to contain the disease in an urban environment such as Hong Kong, where people live literally one upon each other.

Whether such a similar action could be implemented in the Philippines, or say in Canada, is doubtful. Democratic countries, whose populations highly prize their freedom of movement and action, would have a hard time justifying the isolation of a certain part of their population.

While waiting for the disease to be identified, and a possible cure for it found, fashionable Hong Kong residents have as usual found a way to dress up those dreary filter masks that everyone has taken to wearing. Just this week I've seen pictures of masks with Burberry checks, a tiger print and even one with Winnie the Pooh. They sure beat the boring and clinical white ones, but I draw the line at Winnie Pooh. Anyone for Power Puff Girls?

Comments or questions? E-mail the author at rasheed@arabnews.com. Visit the author's website at http://www.manilamoods.com to read past columns.