Archived: WMA Resolution on SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)
Adopted by the 54th WMA General Assembly, Helsinki, Finland, September 2003
and rescinded at the 64th WMA General Assembly, Fortaleza, Brazil 2013
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), an epidemic that shocked the world in 2003, caused alarmingly high levels of morbidity and mortality worldwide. It underscored the need for global strategies to deal with outbreaks and exposed some fundamental weaknesses in public health systems.
Therefore, it is resolved that:
The WMA strongly encourage the World Health Organization to enhance its emergency response protocol to provide for the early, ongoing and meaningful engagement and involvement of the medical community globally, including initiating immediate discussion on the establishment of an effective and real-time means of communicating reliable, evidence-based information to front-line workers and the establishment of reliable sources of products and materials needed to safeguard the health of front-line health professionals and their patients.