Pressure on Martin to reverse ruling on athletes

The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, has come under further pressure to reverse his decision asking delegations from SARS-affected countries to stay away from the Special Olympics.

The Hong Kong authorities, the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) and the Green Party all called for a reversal yesterday.

A Department spokesman rejected weekend claims that the Minister was poised to "back down" on the ban as countries were removed from the World Health Organisation's (WHO) list of areas with recent local transmission.

He said the Minister had always made it clear the ban would only apply to countries on the list 10 days before their participants' planned arrival in this State for the Special Olympics.

There was disappointment in Singapore yesterday as it reported its first SARS case in 19 days. A country must be free of new cases for 20 days before the WHO removes it from its list.

China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Philippines all remain on the list. Hong Kong's Secretary for Home Affairs, Dr Patrick Ho, has asked for a video conference between the Department of Health's SARS expert group and Hong Kong's medical experts, over the decision. Dr Ho said he looked forward to the expert group amending its advice after learning of the true situation.

"The Irish authorities have not followed advice by the World Health Organisation and have made a decision that has not given due regard to the precautionary measures that the Hong Kong Special Olympics has proposed to take before departure," Dr Ho said.

The Department spokesman said Dr Ho's request would be considered when it was received.

Special Olympics officials will put their case to the expert group on SARS at a meeting this week. The expert group is due to meet on Wednesday but its meeting with the Special Olympics officials may be held later in the week.

Yesterday, Dr Joe Barry, IMO president, condemned the ban as "illogical" and "discriminatory". He said the decision would have been different if public health doctors had not been in dispute with the Department. The expert group had lost public health specialist Dr Darina O'Flanagan and four public health doctors as a result of the dispute.

A spokeswoman for the Minister said the chief medical officer and his two deputies were all public health specialists.

"What is happening now is very unfortunate and I still think it can be reversed," Dr Barry told RTÉ Radio. He said Department officials had made a few judgment calls on SARS that wouldn't have been made if public health specialists were working. It is understood that the Department of Health had asked the IMO to exempt the SARS expert group from its dispute action.

Meanwhile, Dr Jim Kiely, chief medical officer of the Department of Health, again defended the Department's decision. He said he had spoken with senior WHO officials and they had not criticised the decision.

Dr Kiely said the WHO had further clarified its position on mass gatherings and had said such decisions should be left to the authority of individual countries, "based on their own assessment of the nature of the event".

The Centres for Disease Control in the United States has not recommended cancelling or postponing mass gatherings involving people from SARS-affected countries.

"Casual contact with SARS patients at schools, other institutions or public gatherings has not resulted in documented transmission in the US," its website states. The Minister's spokeswoman said this advice had been taken into account by the expert group.