WGSARS: SARS Situation in Vietnam - Update 3/31

UNCLAS HANOI 000793 SIPDIS SENSITIVE FOR M/MED C.DUMONT, HODAI, DORSEY; CA FOR M.HARTY, ANDRUCH; M FOR ERIN ROONEY, NAMM; EAP/EX FOR BAER, SHEPPARD, JENKINS; EAP/BCLTV; BANGKOK FOR ADM KEUR, RMO KEYES E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AMED AMGT CASC TBIO VM SUBJECT: WGSARS: SARS Situation in Vietnam - Update 3/31 SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PROTECT ACCORDINGLY REF: Hanoi 789 ¶1. (SBU) For the seventh day in a row, no new cases of SARS were reported in Vietnam by noon on March 31, possibly indicating that the outbreak is well-controlled. In Vietnam, WHO experts believe that rapid detection of the outbreak and immediate introduction of infection control procedures may have held further transmission at bay. According to CDC here, health officials are still surveying closely because of travelers coming in from Hong Kong, Singapore, and Guangdong, China. ¶2. (SBU) Three patients remain in the French Hospital; one is seriously ill and two are improving. 23 patients are in the Tropical Medicine Institute of Bach Mai Hospital. The cumulative total stands at 58 cases of SARS including 4 deaths and 23 discharged patients. Discharged patients are released according to WHO /Ministry of Health guideline policies. All patients and their contacts are carefully monitored. ¶3. (SBU) The French DCM told us today that Paris suddenly changed its mind on evacuating several SARS patients from the French Hospital to France over the weekend. A French military aircraft had been scheduled to arrive on March 28 to transport the patients, but was cancelled at the last minute. Instead, France has sent a nine person medical team from the defense health services to work with the three remaining patients at the hospital. According to the French DCM, the decontamination of the hospital will begin shortly and will work "around" the three remaining patients. Although the private hospital has not yet found the necessary financing to reopen, the French DCM noted that it had been deemed worthy of public support in the form of a French military medical team. She was cautiously optimistic that partial public funding might be found. ¶4. (U) WHO infectious disease specialist in Hanoi, Dr. Carlo Urbani, who died of SARS on March 29 in Thailand, was the first doctor to describe the clinical characteristics of SARS. According to the UNDP, his report, which includes the incubation period of this new disease, remains valid and still provides much of our understanding of SARS. BURGHARDT