China reports 12 more SARS deaths; the WHO warns against travel to Hong Kong
Canadian Press
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
BEIJING (CP) - The toll from severe acute respiratory syndrome rose to at least 78 worldwide Wednesday after China reported 12 more deaths, including nine in the southern province where the disease is believed to have originated.
The United States said it would pressure China for more information about the illness now known as SARS. And China said it would allow a World Health Organization team to visit Guangdong province, where the disease was first reported in November but downplayed for months.
"This is a really unique opportunity for China to find out the origins of the disease, how it spread and how it can be controlled," said Dr. Meirion Evans, a member of the WHO team, which has been in China since early last week. It will be in Guangdong from Thursday until Tuesday.
The disease, which has sickened more than 1,800 worldwide, has been spreading rapidly in Asia. Across the Pacific Rim, even cultural practices involving human contact were being reviewed - and in some cases scrapped for now.
In New Zealand, health officials urged indigenous Maori tribesmen to forgo their traditional hongi nose-rubbing greeting for visiting Chinese at a convention. And in Hong Kong, the Roman Catholic Church ordered priests to wear masks during Communion and put wafers in the hands of the faithful rather than directly on the tongue.
In Geneva, the WHO advised travellers not to go to Hong Kong and Guangdong - the first time that such an advisory has been issued in at least a decade, it said. The WHO took the action because at least nine foreign businessmen have caught SARS in Hong Kong and returned home with it.
"People who are planning to travel to Hong Kong or Guangdong should consider postponing their travel until another time," said the WHO's infectious diseases chief, Dr. David Heymann.
Health officials have been alarmed to see SARS spread by international air travellers, but the WHO's advisory will bring further grief to hotels and airlines that have seen bookings plunge.
One Hong Kong health expert said the WHO had overreacted.
"I don't think it's necessary," said Dr. Lam Shiu-kum, the dean of the Medicine Faculty of the University of Hong Kong.
"The disease will not be spread if we maintain good hygiene and make everyone aware of it through good health education through channels including the airport," Lam said. "We have already got hold of the virus, developed a diagnostic test and know how to treat the illness."
The illness has spread, apparently from Guangdong, to more than a dozen other countries and prompted quarantines as far away as Singapore and Canada, where more than 100 suspected cases have been reported, along with six deaths.
There is no known cure and the exact cause is still being investigated, although less than five per cent of cases prove fatal.
Health officials say the majority of sufferers recover with proper hospital care. Symptoms of the disease's onset include high fever, aches, dry cough and shortness of breath.
The WHO said SARS had shown up in three additional regions of China - Sichuan province in the west, Guangxi in the south and Hunan in the centre.
In addition to the nine new deaths reported in Guangdong, three came from its western neighbour, Guangxi. But the WHO said the 12 cases were from February and March, suggesting they did not necessarily signify the outbreak was worsening.
The newly reported deaths in Guangdong were the first released since the provincial government disclosed last week that 31 people had died there through the end of February. Three deaths also have been reported in Beijing.
In addition to the 46 deaths in mainland China, there have been 16 SARS deaths in Hong Kong, four each in Vietnam and Singapore and two in Thailand as well as the six in Canada.
Elsewhere in Asia:
- Taiwan postponed athletic and cultural exchanges with mainland China for an unspecified period.
- Thailand said Wednesday it will turn back foreigners suspected to be suffering from atypical pneumonia, and those allowed in from affected areas will be forced to wear masks in public.
- Indonesian officials said three suspected cases - including one fatality - had been ruled out as SARS, and that the country still had no confirmed cases.
- In Malaysia, health authorities denied a report in the New Straits Times newspaper about a SARS fatality there, saying the country had no confirmed cases yet. Authorities said, though, that 19 Malaysians were in hospitals after reporting SARS symptoms.
- In the Philippines, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered tighter checks at all air and seaports to screen incoming travellers, saying the problem she said would be treated on the magnitude of the Iraq war.
We must try to lock out the disease as much as possible while keeping an eye on sustaining normal and commercial immigration activities," Arroyo said.
- In far way Switzerland, authorities virtually banned exhibitors from Hong Kong and other parts of Asia from a major watch and jewelry show because of the SARS scare.
Specifically, the ban prohibits exhibitors from employing anyone who has arrived in the country from China, Hong Kong, Singapore or Vietnam since March 1.
The Hong Kong Trade Development Council said it was "disappointed and surprised" by the Swiss government's decision to close their exhibits at the Basel World Watch and Jewelry Show.
The trade show, reputedly the largest and most prestigious of its kind in the world, draws more than 2,000 exhibitors from 45 countries. It opens Thursday.
© Copyright 2003 The Canadian Press
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