WHO Chief Says Need for
Openness Key SARS Lesson

In a globalized world, countries must be more open when they are hit by outbreaks of diseases like SARS, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland did not name any countries but China was widely accused of a cover up over SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which has killed more than 800 people worldwide.

The WHO said last week that SARS had now been contained but Brundtland said she expected more new diseases to emerge in the future.

"The first and most imperative lesson learned from SARS is the need for all disease outbreaks to be reported quickly and openly, which influences the risk of the spread across borders," Brundtland said in a letter to the Finnish daily Uutispaiva Demari.

"It must be recognized that in a globalized world, efforts to hide epidemics due to the fear of social and economic consequences will be truly costly," she said.

China earned international condemnation for being secretive about the flu-like disease for months after it first appeared in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong late last year.

But in April the government responded dramatically, launching a probe into the true state of the outbreak, ordering measures to stem its spread and firing the health minister and Beijing mayor.

Brundtland warned that more new illnesses were on the way, most likely at the rapid pace of one per year seen in the last two decades.

"There will no longer be any islands of safety in the world. There are no impenetrable walls between the healthy, well-fed and well-functioning world and the sick, undernourished and poor world," Brundtland said.

Reference Source 89

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