Europe's Health Ministers to Pledge United Front Against SARS

So far, Europe has been spared the high numbers of deaths and infections the flu-like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has inflicted across China, Taiwan and Canada. And European health officials want to keep it that way. EU health ministers convened an emergency meeting in Brussels late Tuesday to discuss how to prevent SARS from spreading throughout Europe.

Months after the first suspicious case was reported in November 2002, and only a few weeks after Chinese authorities began a concerted effort to stop the virus, a Chinese official labeled the situation in his country on Tuesday as "grave." The bacterial virus has so far claimed 393 lives in China and infected 4,409. Though the number of new infections has dropped from the daily double-digit figures of weeks past to about nine a day, the situation remains dire.

"We can't say with any certainty today whether the total picture of the outbreak has peaked or not," said the director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Gro Harlem Brundtland, in Brussels for the meeting. "Certainly, we have not seen a peak in China yet. We still have a considerable size of outbreak in Hong Kong."

Worldwide the infection trend seems to be slackening off. Canada, where SARS claimed 22 lives in 148 cases, hasn't seen a case for at least a few days. In Europe, 36 people, including seven in Germany, have been suspected of contracting the disease.

No one so far has died. And EU health ministers want to keep it that way.

The region has been on high alert since news of the outbreak in Asia got out. Airports have stepped up safety controls and some are conducting rudimentary medical checks. Some airlines have instructed their flight staff how to spot possible SARS infections in passengers.

Now EU ministers are insisting more needs to be done.

"SARS was a wakeup call for Europe," said David Byrne, the EU Health and Consumer Affairs Commissioner.

Europe needs EU-wide quarantine capabilities

Earlier calls in April by Byrne for European citizens to limit their travels to Asia have turned into urgent pleas to set up a European Center for Disease Prevention and Control and more effective quarantine capabilities.

There are currently no EU-wide policies to effectively handle human epidemics, said Byrne (photo). The 15 EU member countries have, until now, traded information on the disease but have each individually set up rules.

What's needed, said Byrne, is a Europe-wide response mechanism that allows EU countries to quarantine people and limit their ability to move around Europe if they are suspected of being infected. A new European Center for Disease Prevention, which Byrne envisions to be set up 2005, could help provide travel advisory updates and improve cooperation with the WHO.

"By reaching Athens, it could hit London, or it could hit Lisbon from Helsinki, because there's free movement in Europe," said Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, whose country currently holds the six-month EU presidency and called the meeting.