It is too early to say whether the worldwide SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic has reached its peak, the head of the UN's World Health Organization said today.
"I cannot say with any certainty today whether the outbreak around the world has peaked or not," WHO Secretary-General Gro Harlem Brundtland told European Commission officials.
Ms Brundtland, who was speaking just before an emergency meeting of EU health ministers on the SARS crisis said Vietnam could be considered free of the disease and that it was in regression in Canada.
But she said that there the had yet to be a peak in China. "There's still a considerable number of cases everyday and in a number of provinces," she said.
EU Health Commissioner Mr David Byrne, speaking at the same press conference, said the virus-borne disease was a "wake-up call" for the EU.
He said the EU needed to set up a specialised disease agency along the lines of the US Centers for Disease Control.
AFP