David Heymann, World Health Organization executive director for communicable diseases, said at the joint press briefing hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Health and WHO in Beijing Thursday that SARS-related information offered by China was "informative and complete ".

China's Health Ministry and the World Health Organization Thursday both promised to strengthen the exchange of SARS information constantly and more smoothly.

David Heymann, the WHO executive director for communicable diseases, told a joint press conference in Beijing: "I was deeply impressed by the confidence and trust which have been established in the last four months between the Chinese Government and the WHO.''

No new confirmed cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome were reported on the Chinese mainland in the 24 hours up to 10 am Thursday. One suspected case was reported in South China's Guangdong Province, while there was one death in Beijing.

The WHO official attributed the rapid decrease of SARS cases on the Chinese mainland to the "massive efforts in mobilizing the whole population.''

It is very important for the WHO to have confidence in its member states, Heymann said: "With this confidence, we are able to assess the effectiveness of the activities which have been done in China,'' he said.

Heymann Thursday ended his two-day tour of Beijing and left for the Swiss city of Geneva, where the WHO has its headquarters.

During his visit, Heymann achieved widespread and mutual understanding with the Ministry of Health on China's reporting of SARS information to the WHO and on China's diagnostic standards for SARS - two issues that had been queried by some WHO experts for some time.

The SARS-related information offered by China during Heymann's tour was "informative and complete,'' he said. It reflected China's efforts to control the disease, he added.

China's diagnostic standards for SARS are "compatible'' with those used by the WHO, Heymann said. "China's SARS case definition is more sensitive, resulting in more suspected SARS cases.''

He noted that the eventual goal was still to set up a standard SARS case definition worldwide.

Five SARS-hit Chinese provinces briefed Heymann on their SARS situation in detail on Wednesday.

Through Thursday's press briefing, Heymann indicated to China that he was willing to firmly maintain the smooth and accurate exchange of data that took place during his tour.

Heymann's views were echoed at the briefing by Gao Qiang, vice-minister of health, who said that China is willing to provide all information about the epidemic to the WHO so that the two sides can co-operate more deeply.

Gao admitted that, at the beginning of the epidemic's outbreak, China did not do well in disease surveillance and epidemic reporting due to its poor national epidemic monitoring and reporting network.

For the first time, Gao announced that Zhang Wenkang was removed from the position of health minister in April solely because Zhang had not done well in setting up an effective epidemic reporting system and a good healthcare system in the post.

As the network has been improved gradually, China is now able to offer more comprehensive and complete data to the WHO, Gao said.

Gao accepted Heymann's suggestions, saying that China will establish a national SARS database and will even conduct a retrospective investigation into all SARS information to try to find how people are infected by the disease and how the disease spreads among people.

In China as a whole, but especially in Beijing, the real reasons why many people have been infected and their contact histories are still unavailable to the medical authorities. This situation has become a big headache for disease control.

China expects to co-operate with the WHO on a broader level in the hope of improving the country's healthcare system, build up a sound healthcare system in rural areas, and train more qualified medical workers, Gao said.

In another development, Heymann said that decisions as to whether to lift SARS travel advisories relating to Beijing and other regions, including East China's Taiwan Province, would be decided by WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland according to preset standards.

Heymann said he would present his report to Brundtland this morning. Such decisions were made within a "standard format,'' he noted.

Editor: Liao Ming