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ADB Plan for Mobile SWAT Team as Part of Three-Year Anti-SARS Strategy

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (3 July 2003) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are developing plans to set up a regional response unit - which would act as a mobile SWAT team - to guard against a resurgence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and other pathogens.

This would be part of a three-year strategy drawn up by the two organizations, which recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to combat SARS and other emerging infections, ADB health advisor Joseph Hunt told an ASEAN Ministers + 3 Senior Labor Officials meeting here yesterday.

The strategy includes:

• Establishing a world-class regional response team, based at WHO's office for Western Pacific in Manila. The mobile SWAT team will help prevent outbreaks or contain them locally as well as set up training programs to help countries become self-reliant in dealing with SARS.
• Bringing Asia's health laboratories into WHO's global alert network through a regional reference laboratory that will pinpoint new infections.
• Helping countries strengthen infection control through isolation facilities at borders and through community-level tracing and isolation of infectious cases.
• Deepening investigation within the People's Republic of China (PRC) into the origins of SARS and how it infects humans so that, if it flares up again, SARS can be controlled by breaking the chain of transmission.

SARS created an opportunity to strengthen preparedness for emerging diseases that threaten human and economic health, Mr. Hunt told the meeting, which discussed the human and economic impact of SARS on their countries and the region as a whole.

ADB helped to address short-term needs and is now focusing on developing long-term preparedness through a novel capacity-building strategy with WHO to tackle future "surprise infections of unknown origin that will surely come," said Mr. Hunt.

"If this works, Asia will not be caught unawares if SARS rebounds or the next time nature slips a new pathogen into the human condition."

ADB is also working with member countries to raise resources for the demanding task of building the region's capacity to raise an alarm when a new infection appears and to thwart the speed and scope of its spread.

"This is a tall order," said Mr. Hunt, "but feasible if donor partners work effectively with responsive regional bodies like ASEAN."

ADB has also been monitoring the protection packages that countries are providing to faltering small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

If SARS had hit Asian SMEs more adversely, it would have dealt a "major blow to the regional economy," said Mr. Hunt.

In PRC, for example, SMEs contribute 60% of industrial output, 40% of tax revenue, and 80% of employment.

Countries most affected by SARS have assisted stricken enterprises in travel, trade, tourism, and related service and entertainment businesses. Support includes low-interest and extended loans, tax breaks, grants for training retrenched workers, and public works programs.

Five countries invested more than US$8 billion in April and May to buffer their SME sector while governments and the public health community struggled to contain SARS.

"The Hong Kong model shows better than most how companies and jobs can be protected in such an uncertain business climate without distorting the market," said Mr. Hunt.

Hong Kong, China implemented financial assistance programs to SMEs through commercial banks. Its loan guarantee program targets businesses that show SARS was responsible for revenue losses, can demonstrate repayment capacity, and are willing to put up stockholders' assets as loan guarantees.

ADB's response to the emergency helped to galvanize a serious approach to ensure better preparedness, noted Mr. Hunt. Using grant funds from an ADB-managed trust fund provided by the Government of Japan, ADB released emergency response packages to 14 countries plus a regional unit for the Pacific.

The support covered medical and protective equipment for health workers, upgrading surveillance, training and public education campaigns for civil society, and investment analysis on the impact of SARS.

"Realizing that they were not ready, countries recognize that they have to build data bases and decision-making capacity to take speedier corrective action next time," said Mr. Hunt.

"Large gaps include the absence of a regional surveillance network, the ability of hospitals to contain infection, and capacity to anticipate new epidemics, but ADB's agreement with WHO will help fill these gaps."

ADB's emergency assistance strengthened national responses to SARS, set up clinical management systems for SARS, and initiated community awareness programs.

"SARS has shown that early containment is possible at a high price," says Mr. Hunt. "But the cost of not implementing its lessons will be even higher."

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