The impact of the deadly Sars virus in Africa would be devastating and the continent cannot afford to see the disease spread there, warns a World Health Organisation (Who) spokesperson.
Christine McNab told journalists that one of the UN agency’s long-running fears was that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) might take a grip in developing countries where health systems were severely deficient or precarious.
The Who is adamant that the recent success of Vietnam in containing the virus shows that there is a limited opportunity to wipe out the disease.
”We have an opportunity to contain it, it must be seized,” she said.
She warned that an anti-Sars vaccine was not necessarily the answer because it would be difficult to use in African countries which lack sufficient medical networks.
”The African Union countries cannot afford to have Sars because the consequences would be devastating,” she told reporters.
And she welcomed a statement by African Union health ministers on Thursday in Tripoli announcing plans to step up vigilance against Sars .
A single case of the virus has been reported so far in Africa. The 62-year-old South African businessman died on Tuesday in Pretoria.
McNab rejected the idea that high temperatures could stop its spread in Africa, saying that although this would be ideal, it could not be confirmed.
David Heymann, head of the Who’s communicable diseases unit, later told journalists in a telephone conference that the UN health agency was worried about Sars being imported into developing countries.
Not only would these countries struggle to detect and contain it, but if the virus became endemic it could repeatedly be exported from developing countries into other parts of the world, he said. – Sapa-AFP