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As Sars fades in China, focus on hunt for source
Beijing, June 15: After four months of frantic but largely successful efforts to contain Sars in China, World Health Organization experts are now focusing on finding the source of the illness and preventing a new outbreak.
Beijing, June 15: After four months of frantic but largely successful efforts to contain Sars in China, World Health Organization experts are now focusing on finding the source of the illness and preventing a new outbreak.
The number of new Sars cases in china, the worst hit country in the world, has dwindled to just a handful in June, leading to a widespread belief that control measures are working and that the mysterious pneumonia-like disease may be on the brink of disappearing -- for now.
"Before we can talk of eradication we need to know all the facts," Peet Tull, a Swedish epidemiologist who has been in Beijing monitoring the disease for the last five weeks said.
"I think it is about eradicated, but there are some problems, one is the environment, how did it get started? we have to find the source.”
"Another question is the sub-clinical carrier, people who don't have the disease but carry the virus. This is a concern but so far from the epidimeological cycle there is no data supporting this."
Since the who began sending expert teams into China in March, much of their work has been aimed at helping China set up control and surveillance measures and collecting data on the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome.
But now as the number of new cases dwindle, more attention is being focused on the origin of the disease, its molecular make up, whether it jumped from an animal species to human beings and whether it is a seasonal disease, Tull said.
Bureau Report
"Before we can talk of eradication we need to know all the facts," Peet Tull, a Swedish epidemiologist who has been in Beijing monitoring the disease for the last five weeks said.
"I think it is about eradicated, but there are some problems, one is the environment, how did it get started? we have to find the source.”
"Another question is the sub-clinical carrier, people who don't have the disease but carry the virus. This is a concern but so far from the epidimeological cycle there is no data supporting this."
Since the who began sending expert teams into China in March, much of their work has been aimed at helping China set up control and surveillance measures and collecting data on the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome.
But now as the number of new cases dwindle, more attention is being focused on the origin of the disease, its molecular make up, whether it jumped from an animal species to human beings and whether it is a seasonal disease, Tull said.
Bureau Report