To the Editor: Your editorial (May 15 issue)1 describes thespeed and power of the Internet in communicating to the worldknowledge about severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) andthe progression of the epidemic. This access is indispensableto those of us in Taiwan, from government officials to basicresearchers like me. Because of Taiwan's exclusion from theWorld Health Organization (WHO),2 we had to rely solely on theInternet to obtain information about SARS from the WHO's Website and other Web sites like that of the Journal, until a teamof epidemiologists from the WHO finally arrived in May to assessthe damage here. Inexperienced at containing an outbreak, Taiwanwas ill prepared for the task, and the deficiencies in hospitalmanagement and the health system were exposed. Since late April,a series of clusters of infections in hospitals made Taiwan's"the most rapidly growing outbreak,"3 although the pace slowedafter mid-May (Figure 1). It was said that no single entitycan manage SARS on its own.4 For a while, Taiwan was asked bythe world to do just that.
Update 59 — report on Guangxi (China) visit, situation in Taiwan, risk of SARS transmission during air travel. Geneva: World Health Organization, May 2003. (Accessed July 24, 2003, at http://www.who.int/csr/sars/archive/2003_05_19/en/.)
Update 58 — first global consultation on SARS epidemiology, travel recommendations for Hebei Province (China), situation in Singapore. Geneva: World Health Organization, May 2003. (Accessed July 24, 2003, at http://www.who.int/csr/sars/archive/2003_05_17/en/.)
Drs. Drazen and Campion reply: It is essential that we learnfrom the worldwide experience in containing the outbreaks ofSARS. This coronavirus-associated infection could reemerge asa threat to world health. The global threat required consistentresponses, regardless of all our differences. The Internet facilitatedrapid, global communication of information about outbreaks andthe containment procedures, which were basically the same inevery country. One lesson to remember is that with an infectiousdisease such as SARS, the welfare of all depends on early detectionof the disease and open, honest communication among health officialseverywhere.
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