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| APEC health ministers address SARS impact |
| CCTV.COM 2003-06-29 09:06:16 |
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Ministers and senior officials in charge of public health from the Asia Pacific region have gathered in the Thai capital of Bangkok to address the impact of the SARS epidemic, especially on the region's economy.
Ministers and officials from the 21－member Asia－Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum pledged to share information to combat SARS.
Addressing both the public health and economic dimensions of the disease, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said at the opening ceremony that APEC is uniquely positioned to add value to the fight against SARS.
The prime minister congratulated organization members including Chinese Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei and especially the Chinese mainland on their removal from the WHO's travel advisory list.
He said, "It is also my hope that the next time a similar outbreak occurred, we will not again have to hold meeting after meeting, if by then we have effective mechanisms that kick in automatically, and we can look back on these days with satisfaction as a job well begun."
However, the Thai prime minister noted that the SARS outbreak had caused economic damage more quickly than the economic crisis of 1997.
At the meeting, the APEC ministers adopted an action plan to standardize health screening and increase information flows about SARS and other diseases across the group.
The APEC Health Ministers' Meeting on SARS is the first of its kind in the organization's history. The officials discussed ways to revive regional economic confidence so as to minimize the killer disease's negative influence.
The regional economic growth rate is expected to fall by 0.3 to 0.5 percent due to the influence of SARS, according to a report by the APEC Secretariat.
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Editor: Yang Feiyang CCTV.com
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