WHO comments on SARS in Shanghai

(25 Apr 2003) STORYLINE Shanghai should anticipate a substantial number of new suspected cases of SARS as it begins to adopt the World Health Organisation's recommended way to report the illness, WHO officials said on Friday. At a news conference, the officials said that during a fact-finding tour of the city, they had turned up no evidence of a cover-up or intentional underreporting of SARS patients. They also said that Shanghai had a much better SARS monitoring and response system in place than the capital, Beijing. However, they did express worry about the ability of the city of 17 (M) million to withstand a true test of SARS, saying it would be "unrealistic" to expect SARS could be kept out of Shanghai all together. The business city of Shanghai is regarded as the powerhouse of the economic growth in China. It is home to some 100-thousand foreigners and much of China's foreign-owned manufacturing is centred around the city, which is also the mainland's financial hub, home to a foreign exchange centre and stock market. So far, Shanghai has only anounced two confirmed SARS cases. NB: no slate at the start of story Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...