The advent of a new, deadly and apparently highly infectious disease – severe acute respiratory disease, or SARS – has thrown into relief a deadly hole in the world’s defenses against disease, namely, Taiwan’s lack of membership in the World Health Organisation.SARS apparently began in south China, from where a lot of the new variants on old diseases spring. Because in this environment, animals, especially pigs, and birds live in close proximity to humans, diseases can jump the species barrier.H…
