Could this be the light at the end of the tunnel ?.......
AP
Vietnam Readies For WHO To Declare Country Safe From SARS
HANOI (AP)--Just a few days more. If Vietnam can make it to Monday without any new SARS cases, the World Health Organization is prepared to announce that the communist country is the world's first to rid itself of the deadly bug.
No new cases have been reported here since April 8. WHO has set a 20-day window - double the disease's incubation period - as the standard for lifting travel advisories and declaring that the outbreak is no longer spreading.
"It's looking good, but I'm always worried something new will happen," Pascale Brudon, WHO's country representative, said.
Even if things do go right, there will be no celebrations if the SARS thermometer does indeed come back to normal Monday.
Vietnam instead plans to use the news as a springboard for tougher measures to ensure it doesn't get caught in a second wave.
"Vietnam is close to China and Hong Kong where major outbreaks occurred. There remains potentially huge dangers of the SARS virus spreading (here) from the northern borders," said Hoang Thuy Long, director of Vietnam's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.
"We must take more active and stronger measures than during the time when Vietnam was in the middle of the outbreak."
During the past week, the Health Ministry has proposed closing off Vietnam's 1,350-kilometer northern border with China.
It will also request voluntary health certificates from people arriving from SARS-infected areas and has advised Vietnamese citizens to avoid traveling to China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada and Singapore.
Vietnam is also no longer accepting Chinese visitors at its popular northern tourist site, Ha Long Bay.
WHO communicable disease expert Carlo Urbani was the first to identify severe acute respiratory syndrome late February, when the virus spread like wildfire through Hanoi's only international hospital.
Dozens of medical workers fell ill and five succumbed to the disease, but quick action kept the virus tethered. Urbani also become infected and later died in neighboring Bangkok.
"I think we can learn quite a lot of things from Vietnam," Brudon said, "We are the only ones who can begin to think about (announcing the disease is contained). All the others are still in a sense of urgency. I think we can draw good lessons from here."
The disease was brought into Vietnam by a Chinese-American businessman who arrived from Hong Kong.
WHO has since identified him as the country's only "index case" or super carrier as he remains the single source of the outbreak that led to 63 infections in Hanoi.
The Hanoi French Hospital closed its doors March 11, a move that is credited with slowing the rate of infection and keeping SARS from spreading beyond its doors. China and Hong Kong, which have reported more than 210 deaths, never had that opportunity.
The disease has killed more than 260 worldwide and sickened at least 4,300 in more than 20 countries.
Vietnam was one of the first places to report a major outbreak and its numbers were once on par with Hong Kong and Singapore, which has recorded at least 17 deaths.
Even though officials now hope they have a grip on the disease, they also realize just how fast that could all change.
"We have to heighten vigilance and be prepared to cope with it," Long said, "I think the announcement will dispel concerns of foreign visitors, and I hope that they would come back to Vietnam."
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