WHO to guarantee Thai meat exports

Yuwadee Tunyasiri

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will announce Thailand as ``a Sars zero-transmission country'' at the Asean Sars summit today.

The meeting is likely to work out standard anti-Sars measures for the region.

Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said in Phetchaburi yesterday that after today's meeting, Mr Thaksin would declare Thailand ``a Sars zero-transmission country''.

She said national leaders and the region's top health officials would join the meeting that was expected to put in place a set of common measures to control the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

``We have to prove that we are serious in handling the issue and everything was being done transparently and there was no hidden agenda. Better control mechanisms would not only halt the spread of the disease, but would also create confidence among countries outside the region and help revive trade, investment and tourism,'' Mrs Sudarat said.

She noted that information exchanges were essential as the disease had started showing strange development patterns.

Doctors have noticed that most of the elderly patients do not develop a high fever but become lethargic and feel drowsy before being gripped by Sars. Young patients on the other hand are hit by diarrhoea before developing Sars, she said.

All participants from Singapore, Hong Kong and China to the meeting will be screened for Sars.

But the prime ministers and ministers from these countries will be examined in advance and will not have to face virus checks again at Don Muang airport. Others will not be spared. But no one would be required to wear protective masks at the airport or at today's meeting.

Mrs Sudarat has also asked the World Health Organisation to guarantee through certification that fresh food exports from Thailand were Sars-free.

A wrong impression was created in Singapore after the island state closed its wholesale and retail food markets for sterilisation. The markets are among the destinations where fresh meat from Thailand is available. Some importing countries had panicked to the point that they had started demanding Sars-free certificates for Thai fresh food imports from the Public Health Ministry, she said.

The WHO will issue a statement to back the Thai claim on its website, Mrs Sudarat said.