Kuala Lumpur — The chief of the World Health Organization declared Tuesday that SARS has been "stopped dead in its tracks" for now, but experts said China holds the key to whether it comes back.
Meanwhile, the UN agency lifted a month-old warning against non-essential travel to Taiwan, underscoring assertions that the global fight is succeeding. But a warning was left in place for Beijing — the last area where one remains in effect.
Gro Harlem Brundtland, the WHO director general, told a conference that the world has stopped the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome less than 100 days after the first global alert was sounded.
"We have seen SARS stopped dead in its tracks," Ms. Brundtland told more than 1,000 international researchers, officials and health experts meeting in Kuala Lumpur to discuss how SARS has been contained and lessons learned for the future.
The spread of the pneumonia-like disease by air travel highlighted the dangers of an infectious outbreak in the globalized age, she said. Countries that fail to make prompt, open disclosures risk their international credibility, she added.
Ms. Brundtland did not point a finger directly at China. But she was clearly referring to Beijing's initial attempts to downplay its outbreak — which led to a health ministry shake-up — when she praised China's "change in opinion about what was necessary."
Travel advisories have been lifted for several Chinese provinces, but there was no indication when Beijing might be cleared. The capital still has many SARS cases, senior WHO officials said, although they consider the outbreak to be largely contained.
David Heymann, WHO executive director on communicable diseases, said whether SARS makes a big reappearance depends largely on China, where it originated. Chinese officials acknowledge at least 5,327 probable cases and 346 deaths as of Monday.
"China certainly is the key to this outbreak in many respects," Mr. Heymann said. "Particularly because China has been able to contain this outbreak."
SARS has killed about 800 people and sickened more than 8,400 since first being detected in southern China in November. New cases spiked in March and April, but have plunged in recent weeks.
Dr. Paul Gully, director general of Canada's health department, said even heightened surveillance and rapid response mechanisms introduced after SARS broke out in Toronto weren't enough to prevent a second cluster of cases in late May.
"It's really apparent that the ember can continue to smoulder and the disease recur," Dr. Gully told the conference.
