Joint WHO, Food And Agriculture Organization And Chinese Government Mission On SARS Animal Reservoir And Possible Transmission To Humans

The mission is being jointly led by WHO’s Dr Pierre Formenty, a Geneva-based Zoonotic Disease specialist and Dr Xu Jianguo, Director of the National Institute of Communicable Disease with the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr Formenty stressed that the investigation remains a work in progress and that the mission’s objective is to determine what further studies are needed to explore the potential for an animal reservoir. “The mission is not intended to provide a definitive answer about an animal reservoir for the SARS coronavirus,” says Dr Formenty. “To be able to implement SARS control and prevention measures, we need to know where it comes from. But unfortunately, a lot of question marks still remain; and as with other diseases, it could be years before the animal reservoir is discovered.”

Mr Alan Schnur, responsible for Communicable Disease Control in WHO’s Beijing office, said that, ideally, further studies should start as soon as possible. It is unknown whether SARS will return in November, when the cold weather season in China begins. And while comprehensive data will not be immediately available, even limited information will prove useful in combating the disease. At the same time, he said, WHO is working with the Chinese government to implement enhanced SARS surveillance and response systems to rapidly detect and respond to SARS should it return. WHO is simultaneously working with the Ministry of Health to strengthen infection control systems in hospitals.