Taiwan taken off SARS list

Deputy Health Minister Lee Lung-teng said he had received notification from WHO authorities indicating that Taiwan’s status would be changed.

Previously, Taiwan, cited as “Taiwan Province” and grouped together with Guangdong, Beijing, Shanxi and Hong Kong as a part of China, was listed as an area affected by the SARS disease.

Singapore, Vietnam, and Canada were also listed as affected areas.

Lee said Taiwan’s being named an affected area had damaged the country’s image and had already scared away a number of travelers and business people.

The label prompted Health Minister Twu Shiing-jer to write a letter to Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general of WHO, explaining that SARS has been effectively contained in Taiwan.

In the letter, dated April 10, Twu pointed out that only three out of the 50 probable or suspected cases of SARS in Taiwan were found to be of local origin.

The remainder of the cases all seemed to have originated from either Hong Kong or mainland China, Twu said, adding that so far there have been no SARS-related fatalities in Taiwan.

He went on to explain that WHO was mistaken in lumping Taiwan together with China, saying that the Republic of China on Taiwan is an independent sovereign state and not a province of mainland China.

That explanation was needed in part because Taiwan has been shut out of WHO largely as the result of efforts by authorities in the People’s Republic of China.

The revision in Taiwan’s status was a victory because it amounted to an acknowledgement of the efforts local health authorities have made to combat the spread of SARS, the Department of Health’s Lee said.

With the change in status, Lee said he was hopeful that countries like Malaysia and Thailand would stop discriminating against travelers from Taiwan.

Malaysia recently announced that it would not issue visas to Taiwanese travelers, while Thailand authorities indicated that tourists from the island would have to wear a surgical mask while in their country.

Lee said he expected Thailand to phase out that requirement within a day or two as a result of Taiwan’s new status.

Confidence on the part of local health officials that Taiwan will lose the stigma of being listed as a SARS-affected area may be a little premature, however.

Taiwan is still listed on WHO’s Web site as an affected area in its latest bulletin, dated April 12.

Likewise, the island is referred to as “Taiwan Province” and treated as an area of China, despite claims by Lee that Taiwan was no longer treated as a PRC province.

The only difference between the latest report on affected areas and previous ones is the appearance of a new category designated by an asterisk.

Together with the United States and the United Kingdom (London), Taiwan is listed as being an “area with limited local transmission and no evidence of international spread” since March 15.

The footnote also points out that there have been no reports of “transmission other than close person-to-person contact” in such areas.

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