Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Australia: Viruses wtihout Borders

China has blocked Taiwan's membership in the World Health Organization for the past quarter-century. The Beijing government's intransigence is inhumane and dangerous. A viral epidemic killed scores of Taiwanese children in 1998, but doctors on the island of 23 million people were denied the organization's resources.

Five years later, China allowed WHO experts on Taiwan only after more than a hundred people there were diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS - which had spread there from the mainland.Disease does not respect borders. Yet WHO teams are barred from Taiwan without China's approval because the United Nations, under pressure from Beijing, doesn't recognize Taiwan as a nation. The communist government of the People's Republic of China on the mainland regards the democratic, self-ruled island as a province. China fears Taiwan's participation in global organizations would imply sovereignty.

Today, the World Health Assembly will decide on Taiwan's application for membership - but the outcome seems foregone. That's a shame. The assembly should stand up to China.International trade and travel put Taiwan at risk of diseases such as bird flu, which scientists say could one day double world mortality. Taiwan rightly worries that without WHO membership, it could be cut off from information and aid in a pandemic. To deny the nation such an important affiliation isn't just cruel; it could endanger the health of the world.

Copyright 2007, Hartford Courant

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