WHO official warns world to prepare for new diseases

Shigeru Omi, World Health Organization regional director for the Western Pacific, speaking at a Hong Kong press conference, has warned countries to learn from the experience of the 2002-3 severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in order to be ready for new and possibly more deadly diseases in the future. Dr Omi said: "as we have already seen with avian influenza, the threat from emerging diseases did not end with SARS."

Another lesson from SARS, Dr Omi said, was that transparency always is the best policy. "Because the outside world was not informed of what was going on in the initial stages of the outbreak, the virus managed to reach a tourist hotel in Hong Kong. From that moment on, international outbreak was inevitable. If we had known more about what was happening in those early weeks, things would probably have been different," he said.