X-Message-Number: 21476 From: "Mark Plus" <> Subject: WashPost: China Pneumonia Toll Jumps, Singapore Shuts Schools Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 07:57:00 -0800 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31335-2003Mar26.html washingtonpost.com China Pneumonia Toll Jumps, Singapore Shuts Schools Reuters Wednesday, March 26, 2003; 9:59 AM By Tan Ee Lyn HONG KONG (Reuters) - China dramatically raised the death toll from a mystery virus on Wednesday and reported its first deaths in the capital, as Singapore closed schools to fight a pneumonia outbreak that has killed more than 50 people worldwide. Singapore, which has quarantined 861 people with flu-like symptoms and reported on Wednesday its first two deaths from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), said all schools would be closed until April 6. A top Hong Kong official issued a chilling warning to the city's seven million people, saying the killer disease was spreading among the public. "We can see the trend of the figure climbing. People from all walks of life have been infected," Hong Kong Deputy Director of Health Leung Pak-yin told a news conference. "If you are on the plane and an infected person is sitting either behind or in front of you and he coughs, you can get infected." Eleven people have died from the illness in Hong Kong since the outbreak began in February. Leung said infections had risen to 319 from 290 on Tuesday, with 316 suffering severe pneumonia. Hong Kong officials had said the illness was mostly confined to hospital staff and relatives of infected patients. China said on Wednesday 34 people had died and about 800 had been infected by a mystery pneumonia, up from a previously reported five deaths and 305 infections. In Beijing, health officials said three people had died of the disease and five more had been infected but said the illness was not spreading in the city of 14 million. Health officials had previously denied any deaths in the capital. SEVERE PNEUMONIA World Health Organization officials believe SARS, spreading swiftly across the world, is linked to a disease outbreak in China's southern province of Guangdong that began in November, but they have yet to prove a link. Guangdong borders Hong Kong. Symptoms of the disease, which is believed to be spread through droplets by sneezing and coughing, include high fever, chills, coughing, cold and breathing difficulty. Many victims quickly develop severe pneumonia. Out of every 100 infected people, three to five die from the disease, experts say. Guangdong officials said 31 people had died of atypical pneumonia in Guangzhou and six other cities in the province by the end of February. A total of 792 had been infected. Beijing has put its hospitals on alert and laid out a plan to prevent the disease from spreading in the city. SARS has spread to Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Canada and Germany, infecting more than 500. Suspected cases have been reported in the United States, Japan, Britain and Australia. Four people have died in Vietnam, three in Canada and two in Singapore. More than 70 people have been infected in Singapore. Worried parents in Hong Kong and Singapore kept children home from school or packed them off to class wearing surgical masks. "Don't worry about how you look. You should feel lucky you have this to protect you," one Hong Kong mother told her son as he fidgeted under his mask. SCHOOL'S OUT The Singapore government went further on Wednesday evening. It said it would halt classes for the city state's 500,000 children to try to alleviate parent concern, despite saying in a statement there were no medical reasons to close schools. The Hong Kong government has ruled out suspending classes, although nearly 100 schools have chosen to shut down. Two more school children fell ill on Wednesday, bringing the total to 9. Hong Kong's Central Library and a branch of the Bank of East Asia in the city were shut for disinfection after a worker in each place was suspected to have caught the disease. Hong Kong is trying to track down 78 foreigners who stayed on the same hotel floor as an infected mainland Chinese doctor suspected of starting the Hong Kong outbreak in February. The hotel guests -- from mainland China, Britain, the United States, Singapore, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Japan, the Philippines, Netherlands, Germany and Taiwan -- stayed on the ninth floor of the Metropole Hotel between February 21-22. The Chinese doctor is believed to have infected at least seven strangers -- probably in the hotel lift or lift lobby --who then spread the virus in Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and Canada. The doctor and two of those he infected have died. Hong Kong is looking for 245 passengers on board two Air China flights -- CA 112 from Hong Kong to Beijing on March 15, and CA 115 from Beijing to Hong Kong on March 19 -- after nine tourists from Hong Kong on those two flights fell ill. The nine were likely to have caught the disease during the March 15 flight from an infected Chinese passenger, who was returning to Beijing after visiting a sick relative in Hong Kong. 2003 Reuters _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=21476