Word: bekedam
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...chief trade negotiator. She was appointed Health Minister during the SARS crisis last year, replacing Zhang Wenkang, who for weeks had steadfastly denied that there was an epidemic. Wu was committed to transparency. "She told me things she didn't have to because she values openness," says Henk Bekedam, the World Health Organization's China representative. Wu has turned her attention to a far deadlier plague. The Health Ministry reckons that China has 840,000 HIV-positive citizens, but the nation only recently admitted it had an epidemic. Last December, Wu descended from China's cloistered leadership compound...
China claims the virus that causes SARS has infected 1,530 of its citizens and killed 67, but WHO officials suspect the numbers are higher. "We have clearly told the government the international community doesn't trust your figures," said Henk Bekedam, the WHO representative to China. "Now it's time to start building some trust...
...international outrage over such dissembling intensified, China's top leaders were forced to address this health and public-relations fiasco late last week. "We have clearly told the government the international community doesn't trust your figures," says Henk Bekedam, China representative for the WHO, which could have added Beijing to its travel-advisory list, alongside Guangdong province and Hong Kong. The WHO then estimated the capital's SARS patients at 100 to 200?five times more than the government acknowledged?based on hospital visits and other data. On Friday, state media reported that China's new President, Hu Jintao...
...prevarication. But fears remain that this move has come far too late?and that the virus is already spreading to China's vast interior, where hospitals are ill-prepared to deal with such a costly and complicated epidemic. "I'm most concerned about the provinces," says the WHO's Bekedam. "[They have] neither the financial resources nor the human resources to deal with SARS...
...where the average monthly income is just $60, the family of an infected student surnamed Han has had to fork over $240 in medical fees for four days' care. "The government has underinvested in health in the last 20 years, leaving it to individuals to pay the bills," says Bekedam...