travelnews: Travel Advisory

[Carolyn Wooley <cwooley@oregon.uoregon.edu>]

The following message was received from one of our contract travel
agencies.

05/09/03

WHO EXTENDS SARS TRAVEL ADVISORY TO 
TIANJIN, INNER MONGOLIA and TAIPEI 

As a result of ongoing assessments as to the nature of outbreaks of severe
acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the World Health Organization (WHO) is
now recommending, as a measure of precaution, that people planning to
travel to the following areas of China- Tianjin, Inner Mongolia, and
Taipei in Taiwan province-consider postponing all but essential travel.
This temporary advice will be reassessed regularly. 
Information about the magnitude of the SARS outbreaks in Tianjin, Inner
Mongolia and Taipei has been carefully reviewed by WHO. The travel advice
is based on a consideration of the magnitude of the outbreaks in these
regions, including both the number of prevalent cases and the daily number
of new cases. The extent of local chains of transmission as well as the
potential for spread beyond these areas were also major factors in the
reasoning for this advice.
WHO travel advisories remain in place for other parts of China, including
Beijing, Hong Kong, and Guandong and Shanxi provinces. 
CDC DOWNGRADES TRAVELER'S NOTIFICATION 
FOR SINGAPORE FROM AN ADVISORY TO AN ALERT

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now downgrading
its traveler's notification for Singapore from a travel advisory to a
travel alert. (A travel advisory recommends that nonessential travel be
deferred; a travel alert, does not advise against travel, but informs
travelers of a health concern and provides advice about specific
precautions.)
Reasons for removal of the advisory include the following: (1) Currently,
SARS transmission in Singapore is limited to a small number of households
and a well defined specific community setting through direct
person-to-person spread. (2) The onset of symptoms of the last reported
case not occurring in a defined community setting was on April 14, 2003.
More than 20 days, or two SARS incubation periods, have elapsed since that
date. (3) Monitoring by the Ministry of Health of Singapore indicates that
there are no new outbreaks of illness in Singapore, and there is adequate
surveillance for SARS in place. 


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