WHO urges world leaders to fight SARS virus

GOVERNMENTS worldwide must do more to work together in the fight against SARS, the head of the UN health agency said yesterday, as delegates gathered for the WHO's annual meeting, wearing badges to show they have been screened for the virus.

"It has never been clearer than today that a secure, healthy future for us all depends on cooperation across borders and between institutions," World Health Organisation chief Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland told top health officials and medical specialists.

"We can no longer rely on national efforts alone to implement the scaled up system of global alert and response that the world now needs," she told the opening session of the World Health Assembly.

The meeting, gathering officials from the 191 nations who are members of the WHO, is likely to dominated by the issue of SARS.

Delegates even ranking officials will be barred from the 10-day meeting if they refuse to complete a questionnaire that asks whether they have been in contact with SARS sufferers or have symptoms of the disease. Those who are cleared receive a badge allowing them to attend.

SARS is a flu-like virus that first emerged in southern China in November.

China, which has seen the highest proportion of the more than 7,700 people infected worldwide, has been criticized for its slow response to the disease and alleged reluctance to reveal the true number of cases.

The global death toll has climbed to 634, with most of the victims in China and Hong Kong.

WHO has issued warnings against nonessential travel to regions hit by the virus.

Several parts of mainland China, plus Hong Kong and Taiwan, currently are on the WHO list.

The agency lifted a similar warning on non-essential travel to Toronto on April 30 after deciding that health

authorities in the Canadian capital city had sufficiently contained the disease.

WHO also lists places considered to have "local transmission" of SARS. Most are in China, but the Philippines' capital Manila and Singapore are also listed.

Although she did not identify any country in her comments, Brundtland said: "We need to get access to information about disease outbreaks as soon as they occur.

"We need to share that information globally even faster than modern travel. We need to share successful strategies adopted by countries to contain the disease and learn from what does not work. We need to ascertain whether control measures are being properly taken by affected countries."

Brundtland met on Sunday in Geneva with Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi, who also is his country's health minister.

Yesterday, in a report aired on Chinese state television, Wu said the SARS outbreak was coming under control.

"We still feel the situation is very severe ... and one of the reasons is

China's very large number of people and the flow of the population," said Wu, who is also attending the assembly.

China's official Xinhua News Agency quoted Wu as telling Brundtland: "We cannot lower our guard, as the epidemic might relapse with even minor oversight."