The World Health Organization has said the global outbreak of the respiratory illness Sars has been contained as Taiwan was dropped from a list of virus hotspots. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) illness infected thousands of people around the world since the first cases appeared in China in November. Taiwan was the last territory on the WHO warning list to go the mandatory 20 days without reporting a new case of the sickness. WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland said: "We do not mark the end of Sars today, but we observe a milestone. The global Sars outbreak has been contained.