The World Health Organization is continuing its fight to gain control of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), according to a spokesman.
Mark Slater, coordinator for WHO's SARS clinical management group, was speaking at a conference held by the UN Information Centre in London. He said that WHO was leading a worldwide effort to avoid SARS becoming another established disease in humans. He said there were still no clues about the origins of the virus and that to date no effective treatment is available.
The international response to SARS had improved knowledge of the disease. It had also led to the recent sequencing of the virus's genome. Now the biggest efforts are focused on generating a reliable and fast diagnostic test.
A big problem, said Dr Slater, is that in China, where SARS originated, a lot of different species of animal are used for food, so identification of all species that could be vectors is a major task. He ruled out the possibility that the SARS virus might have been created as a biological weapon.
China continues to be the country most affected by the SARS epidemic, but the number of new cases and mortality are starting to go down. The Chinese government is now providing more reliable data and has allowed WHO to put teams on the ground to help manage the epidemic, he said.
Toronto has been taken off the list of places with travel restrictions. This is because more than 20 days have passed since the last new case was reported. Dr Slater said it was likely that Singapore will be taken off the list of affected countries, as no new cases had been reported for more than a week.
He highlighted the negative economic effects that the disease was having on the affected areas, mainly because of WHO recommendations on restricting international travel. He said that there was only a small possibility that people might become infected outside hospital environments. Gatherings should not be avoided, and he also questioned the Irish government's plan to ban athletes from affected countries coming to the 2003 World Games next month.
Dr Slater said the media had played an important part in the monitoring of the disease and had fulfilled their role of informing the general public about symptoms and spread of the disease.