WHO Travel Advisory lifted for Hong Kong & Guangdong

[404 Titan]

World Health Organization changes Hong Kong, Guangdong travel recommendations

23 May 2003 | GENEVA -- Effective today, the World Health Organization (WHO) is removing its recommendation that people should postpone all but essential travel to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Guangdong province, China.

The recommendation to consider postponing all but essential travel to Hong Kong and Guangdong was issued on 2 April in order to minimize the international spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). WHO is changing this recommendation as the situation in these areas has now improved significantly.

Recommendations to postpone travel are issued following consideration of several factors, including the magnitude of probable SARS cases, the pattern of recent local transmission, and the last dates of export of cases.

On 27 March, WHO recommended that all areas with recent local transmission (1) should screen all international departing passengers to ensure that those who are sick with SARS or are contacts of SARS cases do not travel. This recommendation is still valid for both Hong Kong and Guangdong.

“We are changing the travel advice for Hong Kong and Guangdong effective Friday, 23 May,” said Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of the WHO. “Guangdong was the first place in the world to have cases of SARS but I am pleased to note that due to the efforts of the local and national health authorities, with support from WHO and partners, the outbreaks in Guangdong and in Hong Kong are being contained."

In Hong Kong, the three-day average number of new cases has remained below five over the last six days and the pattern of the outbreak shows a sustained decline since the peak of new cases in late March. The total number of people who are still infectious (all of whom are in hospital) has fallen below 60, although there are other former SARS patients who are still convalescing or being treated for other conditions in hospital. All new cases in the past 20 days have occurred in people who were already identified as contacts of a person with SARS and under active surveillance by the local health authorities. There have been no recent reports of internationally exported cases from Hong Kong.

In Guangdong province, the three-day average number of new cases has been below five for 11 days and the number of SARS patients in hospital fell below 60 on May 20. Due to the efforts of the provincial health authorities, the extent of local transmission has fallen to low levels over recent weeks. There have been no recent reports of internationally exported cases from Guangdong province.

The WHO has also reviewed the travel recommendations for other areas of China, including Beijing, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Taiwan and Tianjin. The WHO recommendations to consider postponing non-essential travel to these areas remain in place. The WHO reviews travel recommendations regularly.

The outbreak in many areas of China is ongoing, and will require continuing intensive efforts as well as a rapid injection of new resources to fully contain SARS.

Hopefully China as a whole will have there travel advisory lifted in the next four weeks and Taiwan not long after.
:ok:

Reality though is that it will take months to get people to come back to these places as the damage has already been done by the moron press in Australia and the rest of the world.
:mad: :{

[Kaptin M]

Your last statement is correct, 404 Titan.

As some sort of counter measure, may I suggest that PPRuNe make the above press release a "Sticky" on the main forum pages most frequented?


Edit. A further thought - why not copy the above post and email it to say 5 or 10 of your friends, and ask them to do the same.
A chain letter that is GUARANTEED to give returns!

[404 Titan]

SLOPS

The World Health Organisation today issued a new warning against non-essential travel to the entire Western hemisphere following renewed concerns about the spread of Severe Loss of Perspective Syndrome (SLOPS).
Officials are warning travellers not to visit the UK, the US, almost all of Western Europe, and Canada, following further outbreaks of the disease, which has led to mass panic among the media, thousands of ecstatic children being kept out of school by their credulous and moronic parents, and increased profits for DIY stores as the idiot public rush to bulk-buy face masks and boiler suits.
A WHO spokesman said, "You'd be much better off going to somewhere like Hong Kong or China, because all you've got to worry about there is SARS, and let's face it, you're about as likely to die from that as you are to get kicked to death by a gang of zombie nuns."
The SARS virus has now claimed a staggering 550 lives in only six months, which makes it considerably more deadly than, say, malaria, which only kills around 3000 people every single day. Malaria, however, mainly affects only people who speak foreign languages, whereas SARS has made at least one English person feel a bit iffy for a couple of days, and is therefore considered much more serious.
The spread of SLOPS has now reached pandemic proportions, with many high-level politicians seemingly affected by the disease. The rapid spread of SLOPS has been linked to the end of the war in Iraq and the need for Western leaders to give the public something to worry about. Otherwise, they might start asking uncomfortable questions about domestic issues, and that simply would not do.


;) :D :p :ok:

[redsnail]

Titan 404,
Brilliant. Fantastic post. I'd put that up in Jetblast if I were you! :D