China not prepared for SARS meltdown

CHINA, where the government has admitted the number of SARS cases in Beijing is far higher than had been disclosed previously, may be facing a "very big outbreak" in the provinces, the World Health Organisation said yesterday.

"If you do not have the resources to deal with SARS, I think we're going for a very big outbreak in China," said Henk Bekedam, the WHO representative in China.

"I think it will be quite a challenge to contain SARS within China, especially those provinces which have very limited resources," he said.