La censure, arme de destruction massive

We are on the eve of a global crisis as regards infectious diseases, a World Health Organization (WHO) report said in 1996. Indeed, many analysts stressed the danger of humanitarian disasters caused by a virus which could not be brought rapidly under control and, thanks to the effects of globalisation, might spread throughout the world.
Let us therefore be vigilant, says André-Yves Portnoff. He emphasizes here above all the dramatic impact of censorship and corruption in the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome ) in China, blocking the adoption of the urgent preventive measures needed.
He goes on to argue that if China does not make radical progress, and does not open up to freedom of information and communication in public health matters, the country will remain an enormous region from which new epidemics can spread and threaten the whole of humanity.