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Biotech / Medical : SARS and Avian Flu -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (727)	5/6/2003 6:48:46 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4232

China May Never Be Able to Constrain SARS, Virologist Says By Friederike Truemper Frankfurt, May 6 (Bloomberg) -- China may never be able to constrain the severe acute respiratory syndrome that has killed at least 475 people to date worldwide, a medical virologist said. ``If we're lucky it'll take as much as six months,'' for China to confine the disease, said Wolfgang Preiser, who last month visited the country as a member of the World Health Organization's team of doctors investigating SARS. ``If we're unlucky it'll never be achieved.'' If China can't combat the illness, ``sporadic'' outbreaks will occur worldwide ``until the end of time,'' Preiser said. While developed countries will be able to cope with the disease, it may cause ``huge problems'' for African and South Asian countries, that would be bound to become affected sooner or later, he said. The disease has infected 6,583 people in over two dozen countries, WHO said yesterday. In China, which accounts for two- thirds of the world's cases, the illness has been spreading since its eruption was made public in March. The country today reported 138 new infections and eight more deaths. Some of the newly reported cases in China, in particular in the capital, Beijing, may be ones that the government omitted to report before, Preiser, a doctor with the Institute of Medical Virology in Frankfurt, said. Some Chinese provinces don't have a reporting system for SARS in place yet, Preiser said. In most provinces, individual cases probably have occurred, and underdeveloped regions may have had ``larger outbreaks'' that haven't been registered, he said. Help Needed China may need help from abroad to cope with the virus in terms of equipment and medical staff, Preiser said. It has started introducing controls that Singapore and Hong Kong imposed last month and quarantined thousands of people to fight the illness. Singapore was the first country to shut schools and isolate people. Hong Kong, the world's second-most-affected place after China, reported nine new cases in the past day. Vietnam, with 63 SARS cases and five fatalities, has succeeded in containing the outbreak of the disease by identifying new cases quickly and isolating patients before they spread the illness to others, the WHO said last week. In Europe, where 11 countries from Bulgaria to Spain have reported 36 infections without any fatalities, measures should begin by requiring passengers at international airports who are arrive from affected countries, and who show symptoms such as fever, to see a doctor, Preiser said. Last Updated: May 6, 2003 07:58 EDT quote.bloomberg.com =========================================== what value does this kind of predication serve for?