As the global outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) continues to slow, the World Health Organization has reduced its advice about not visiting certain places to only two areas — Beijing and Taiwan. The advice not to visit Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, and Tianjin was lifted last week, and nine provinces and municipalities were removed from the list of areas with recent local transmission.

This came after Dr David Heymann, WHO's executive director for communicable diseases, visited Beijing to look into the sharp drop in the number of SARS cases in China. At the end of his visit Dr Heymann praised China's infection control measures, including surveillance of passengers on trains, buses, and …