Editorial/Opinion

Posted 4/29/2003

The flood of dismal news this week about how the spread of SARS is causing medical, economic and political woes in China failed to drown out one promising development: Several nations appear to have a handle on their SARS outbreaks. Tuesday the World Health Organization (WHO) lifted a warning on travel to Toronto; Monday it announced Vietnam had contained its SARS crisis.

If the WHO is correct, other nations may be able to escape China's fate by tackling the disease and seeking outside help. In other words, adopting behaviors opposite to China's initial reaction of secrecy and isolation.

The bigger question is whether China's dismal handling of SARS will be a watershed event in a country that is an incubator for outbreaks of global health threats.

The disease has caused human devastation in China - 3,300 cases and 148 deaths, according to government reports - and had economic and political repercussions. Tourism has plunged, sales have suffered and activities have been canceled.

On Tuesday, China announced a weeklong shutdown of its stock exchanges beginning Thursday. On Sunday, a riot broke out in a rural community two hours from Beijing when word spread that a local building might be used to quarantine SARS patients.

How Vietnam apparently triumphed over SARS, while its Communist neighbor has been so crippled by it is a contrasting tale of two epidemics. When the then-mysterious respiratory disease broke out in China last November, the government hid it for months. Even this spring, it stonewalled WHO officials after they arrived in Beijing to investigate.

In Vietnam, doctors quickly sought help from a WHO physician after a businessman was stricken with an unidentified virus in February. WHO's investigation led it to issue a global alert on March 12 and name the virus severe acute respiratory syndrome. Since then, Vietnam has worked closely with the WHO to contain SARS.

Belated signs are emerging that China's penchant for secrecy is breaking down. On Tuesday, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao joined other Asian leaders in backing a plan to control SARS with rigorous screening of travelers and an exchange of research. "We have learned our lesson," Wen said.

That's an important admission if China is to prevent new health and economic disasters - and the world hopes to avoid diseases that don't respect geographical boundaries.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2003-04-29-edtwo_x.htm