US embassy cable - 03HANOI793

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