The World Health Organisation's lifting of its travel advisories on Hong Kong and Guangdong is most welcome news. We've beaten the epidemic this time, and now we can get back to business. While there are still reports of new cases elsewhere, and the WHO has yet to lift the travel advisory for other parts of China, it seems the worst is over for now.

You will notice the words "this time" and "for now" in the above paragraph. This is because, although containing this disease has been very tough, now comes the equally hard part: preventing, or minimizing the next epidemic. It would be both foolish and dangerous to assume that our battle with SARS was a once-in-a-lifetime catastrophe, and that we can go about our lives much as we did before. We need some fundamental changes, in our daily lives, in our work environments, in our public health care system, in our crisis management techniques and in our ability to work together with other countries and jurisdictions to fight this menace. While we still have the Hong Kong and international communities united to fight this danger we need to use that spirit before it slips away.

In our daily lives, we need to continue many of the good habits we practiced this spring. We need to continue to wash our hands frequently and wear face masks if we are ill. There should be strict and heavy fines against people who spit in public, litter or keep an unhygienic home or workplace. In business, we need to ensure we provide a safe working environment for our staff, and do not facilitate contagion. Front-line employees in frequent contact with the public should be encouraged to report any illness to management, and employers should look with compassion on those who might need some time off.

One area that certainly needs attention is our wet markets. We must significantly improve the hygienic conditions in these premises, greatly tighten both regulations and their enforcement, and reconsider activities such as the slaughter of live chickens in such facilities.

In our public health care system we need to guarantee that the heroes putting their lives at risk are provided with the best possible equipment, training and facilities necessary to do their jobs, along with information and intelligence on best practices in dealing with whatever diseases we as a community face. It is unacceptable for a first world society such as ours not to be prepared for emergencies.

Our public health crisis management needs a lot of work. The slow response with which Hong Kong recognized the problem and began to take steps to contain the spread of SARS caused unnecessary fear both at home and abroad. We need to recognize that we didn't do enough, early enough, to contain the hysteria. A professional panel to look into how we did in the SARS crisis would be a start to any reform or new initiatives to improve our public health crisis management system.

Internationally, we need to step up our efforts to head off the spread of epidemics at an early phase. Disease knows no borders; it doesn't care where sovereignty or jurisdiction begin and end. To this end, we need a much stronger health information network among the societies of Asia, one that allows immediate and direct communication among health care experts anywhere in the region. We need to set aside pride, and ask for help when help is needed. We need to bring to our neighbors' attention conditions in their jurisdictions that threaten all of us. We need to realize that globalization is more than tariffs and sectoral liberalization. It is also about people movement and disease transmission. And, we need to bring together the best minds available to focus on rapidly finding solutions.

It has been suggested that Hong Kong build a world class infectious disease institution, along the lines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA. This is a step in the right direction, and an excellent long-term plan. But it should do more than research, it should be an intelligence gathering, alert, and crisis management center. Then it will give us the tools to fight disease in the next decade and beyond. Such an ambitious undertaking will not be cheap, and will take years to produce results. Yet, the benefits are clear.

We have the opportunity not only to reduce the impact of future epidemics but also to develop further the SAR as a key regional center. Hong Kong has the unique characteristics required to become a global public health research and management center. We have the ability to draw on people from around the world, not just in our own city. We have the connections to every country in the world that allow us to communicate across political lines. And, we have the impetus, in the form of the economic threat of doing nothing.