World soon to be SARS-free but virus could return, warns WHO

THE World Health Organisation said yesterday the world should be free of the deadly SARS virus within the next two to three weeks, but warned the disease could emerge in China again next winter.

David Heymann, director of the WHO's communicable diseases division, said he expected Taiwan and Toronto -- the only two areas still regarded as zones where the disease could be transmitted -- to be given a clean bill of health by the first week of July.

“It appears we've had the peak of epidemic in all countries,” Mr Heymann said in an interview ahead of a meeting of Asia Pacific health ministers in Bangkok today.