The World Health Organisation said today the global outbreak of the respiratory illness SARS had been contained as it removed Taiwan from its list of areas with recent local transmission of the disease.
However, the organisation warned that while the containment was a milestone, countries must remain vigilant against the re-emergence of the illness which has killed more than 800 people worldwide, mostly in China and Hong Kong, and for which there is no simple treatment.
"We do not mark the end of SARS today, but we observe a milestone: the global SARS outbreak has been contained," WHO said in a statement.
The announcement came after Taiwan, the last territory on the list, had gone the mandatory 20 days or twice the normal incubation period without reporting a new case of the potentially fatal severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
"Based on country surveillance reports, the human chains of SARS virus transmission appear to have been broken everywhere in the world," the WHO said in a statement.
However, the WHO stressed that the world was not yet SARS-free, with some 200 people, mostly in China, still in quarantine.
SARS, which is linked to the family of viruses which cause the common cold, quickly spread to 30 countries, helped by global travel, prompting the WHO to issue a global alert in March.
The fact that it jumps easily from one infected person to another, even in well-equipped modern hospitals where many victims have been doctors and nurses, means countries will have to remain on their guard, the WHO has said.
Authorities in Taiwan, where nearly 700 cases and 84 deaths have been reported over the past three months, are expected to give a warm welcome to the decision after the outbreak curbed travel and dealt a blow to the region's economy.
At one time several Chinese provinces and the capital Beijing, as well as Hong Kong, Toronto, Singapore, Vietnam's capital Hanoi and the Philippine capital Manila were on WHO SARS lists.
More than 7,000 cases and nearly 650 deaths have affected China and Hong Kong.