Special meeting on SARS urged
A decision is to be made today following a request by European Union Health Commissioner David Byrne for the special meeting.
This follows reports of at least 84 people in the 15 member states, including one in Ireland, suspected of having caught the virus, but so far there have been no deaths.
Commissioner Byrne held a meeting of his experts yesterday to discuss the up-to-date situation.
"High-level officials have been in contact on a daily basis about this, but we think the time may be ripe now for the health ministers to meet to consider what more could be done," he said.
The EU has no powers in the area of human health unlike outbreaks of disease in animals.
They are limited to mainly co-ordinating information and helping to spread it throughout the member states through the EU Network of Communicable Diseases.
Mr Byrne said SARS was not a major European problem at present.
However, he said nobody could afford to be complacent given the number of people travelling all over the world.
Issues likely to be addressed include a strategy in the event of a crisis, including the possibility of controls at airports and borders.
It would then be up to the ministers co-ordinating this with the relevant government departments such as Justice, Defence and the Environment at national level in their own countries.
MEP Gerard Collins has also written to the Greek presidency of the EU requesting such a meeting.
He said: "there have been cases reported in ten EU countries.
"I am not being an alarmist or sensational in calling for a special meeting of EU health ministers.
"The fact of the matter is that there is public anxiety and these anxieties must be fully addressed."
Ambassadors from the EU member states decided last Tuesday it was too early to call a special meeting of health ministers.
However, the Greeks, who hold the rotating presidency, were last night reconsidering the issue and said they would decide today.
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