Sars: Asian nations unite
2003-04-26 20:49
Hong Kong - The mortality rate of people suffering from severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) has reached 10% double the figure suggested by the World Health Organisation (WHO) earlier this week, a leading British expert on infectious diseases said on Saturday.
"If one looks carefully at the WHO figures on mortality and recovery rates, it is running, unfortunately, at 10%," professor Roy Anderson of Imperial College in London told BBC radio.
The WHO, which said on Friday the mortality rate had reached 5-6%, did not confirm Anderson's figures, but said they appeared plausible.
"We have not seen the report so we could not comment except to say that this is a top class professional and any figure he commits himself to is likely to be as close as possible to accurate," said Dick Thompson, spokesperson for the WHO's communicable disease section.
Asian nations meanwhile vowed to form a united front to halt the spread of the killer Sars virus on Saturday as the WHO called for a global hunt to track down every case of the disease.
The determined pledge came at the end of a meeting of Asian health ministers and international experts in Kuala Lumpur after severe acute respiratory syndrome claimed 15 more lives across the region.
The respiratory illness that first emerged in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong nearly six months ago has now killed at least 292 people, mostly in Asia, and infected nearly 5 000 people in 26 countries.
Several governments have already introduced sweeping emergency measures to curb the spread of the disease, quarantining thousands of people and sealing off entire buildings, hospitals and schools.
The health ministers meeting in Kuala Lumpur ahead of an emergency regional summit in Bangkok next week turned their attention to the problem of preventing the virus from spreading internationally.
Screening of passengers
In a communique issued after the meeting, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus China, Japan and South Korea affirmed the need to bar Sars suspects from going to other countries.
They said they were "convinced of the effectiveness of screening of passengers before they leave affected areas in preventing the spread of Sars."
The 13 countries warned that "even one single infectious case can lead into a serious outbreak unless rigorous measures are taken."
They agreed to "call for relevant authorities at airports, seaports, river ports and land entry points to collaborate with healthcare workers to undertake stringent pre-departure screening of passengers for international travel."
Sars suspects are to be referred promptly to health care facilities, and persons who have been in contact with them are to be put under surveillance.
The countries will make it mandatory for all travellers from affected countries to fill up Sars health declaration forms.
They will also institute in-flight management of suspected Sars cases who develop symptoms on board, and disinfect aircraft.
Shigeru Omi, the WHO's Asian director, said every person infected with Sars as well as anyone they have been in contact with must be found in order to halt the explosive epidemic in its tracks.
At a crossroads
"We cannot afford to miss a single person," Omi told the conference. "We are at a crossroads. What we decide today and at the heads of state meeting on Tuesday will determine the future course of this outbreak," he said.
Omi said although the number of Sars cases and deaths was not large compared to other diseases, the illness posed an "unprecedented" threat and had distinct characteristics.
"First, this virus has already demonstrated its explosive power to cause sudden outbreaks in a large number of countries," he said.
A second characteristic was the severe impact on health workers, Omi said.
"This is a major concern since this means that our health systems are under threat, undermining our ability to fight the outbreak," he said.
The WHO has declared several regions no-go zones as it attempts to contain Sars, issuing advisories warning against all non-essential travel to Beijing, Hong Kong and the Canadian city of Toronto.
Concern that the virus may have mutated has arisen in Hong Kong following a series of deaths involving younger, fitter patients with no history of chronic illness.
A 28-year-old man was among six new deaths reported by Hong Kong health officials on Saturday, the youngest person to die from the disease in the territory so far.
Health minister
In China, the worst affected country from the outbreak, Vice Premier Wu Yi was formally appointed health minister replacing previous incumbent Zhang Wenkang.
China announced it would invest some 3.5 billion yuan to set up a nationwide network to deal with health emergencies while in Beijing 17 hospitals with a total of 1 800 beds have been designated for Sars cases.
China has now reported 122 fatalities, and Hong Kong's death toll is at 121. Other countries to have recorded fatalities are Canada (19), Singapore (19), Vietnam (5), Philippines (2), Malaysia (2) and Thailand (2).
Scientists have so far identified the coronavirus - the family which causes the common cold - as the cause but experts have warned neither a cure nor a vaccine is imminent.