Global Sars infections at 8 400
2003-06-09 09:03
Hong Kong - Asia reported just three new Sars cases and two deaths on Sunday as efforts to contain the fallout from the epidemic were stepped up, while Canada reported two new deaths from its latest outbreak.
No new cases were reported in China or Hong Kong but each reported a further death from severe acute respiratory syndrome. Meanwhile, Canada, the hardest hit country outside of Asia, also reported two new Sars deaths, raising its death toll to 33.
The three new cases were recorded in Taiwan, which despite its latest infections appeared determined to appeal a World Health Organisation travel warning against the island.
Taiwan's Health Minister Chen Chien-jen and Taiwan's Centre for Disease Control (CDC) were optimistic the WHO travel advisory would be lifted.
"We've exchanged views with the experts from the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the new cases. They were optimistic and did not expect our goal to be influenced," a CDC official said of the advisory being lifted.
The WHO in May issued its travel advisory warning against unnecessary travel to all parts of Taiwan because it said the island had the most rapidly developing Sars outbreak.
The number of people who have succumbed to the pneumonia-like illness on the island has remained unchanged at 81 since May 31.
China, which has already imposed strict quarantines in affected areas and threatened the death penalty for those spreading the disease, on Sunday issued a new health directive on treating patients with both Aids and Sars.
The directive, posted on the Ministry of Health website, threatened to prosecute any hospital refusing to treat such patients.
It did not say whether any such cases hade been recorded but warned that any carriers of the virus that causes Aids, who come down with Sars or are suspected to have Sars, must receive immediate medical treatment.
"Any Sars-appointed hospital that refuses (to accept patients with HIV or Aids) will be seriously investigated at every level of the health administration in accordance with the 'Administrative Law on Prevention of Infectious Diseases'," the circular said.
China Sunday reported no new cases of Sars and one fatality, the 14th consecutive day that fewer than 10 new cases of the respiratory illness have been reported in the country.
China now has reported 5 328 cases of Sars and 339 deaths.
Hong Kong also reported no new cases on Sunday and one more Sars death.
The latest fatality, involving a 57-year-old man who was suffering from a chronic illness, raised the death toll to 287 from 1 752 cases.
It was the third time Hong Kong has recorded zero confirmed Sars infections during the 11-week outbreak. Hong Kong also reported zero infections on May 24 and June 5.
Hong Kong is attempting to achieve a 20 consecutive day zero-reading which would enable it to be removed from the WHO's list of Sars-affected areas.
In Canada, the two deaths on Saturday were of a 66-year-old woman and a 63-year-old man, Ontario province health authorities said in a statement.
Officials last week quarantined mothers and newborn babies even as they were saying the latest Sars outbreak appeared to be winding down.
The disease, which originated in China, first appeared in Canada in early March. A second, previously unknown outbreak was discovered on May 22.
Meanwhile, the WHO said in a report posted on its Internet site that it had received information on 8 404 probable cases of Sars, including 779 deaths worldwide.
In its latest bulletin, dated June 6, the WHO said it had been informed of probable cases of Sars in 29 countries.
Of the cases reported, 5 937 people have been said to have recovered.
The WHO's tally does not include the latest deaths in Canada, Hong Kong and China.
In Singapore, which was recently declared free of Sars by the WHO after suffering 31 deaths, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said Sunday it was still too early to predict whether the island state's Sars-hit economy would slip into recession this year.
"We may not have recession this year...we do not know yet," Goh was quoted as saying on NewsRadio 93.8.
"That depends on the fourth quarter so I would not say we are going into a recession...it is too early to predict that."
Singapore has already revised official growth rates from between 2.5 and 5% to between 0.5% and 2.5% due to the Sars outbreak.
And in good news for Hong Kong, the territory has been cleared to compete in this month's Special Olympics Summer Games in Dublin after Irish authorities changed an earlier decision to ban the Sars-hit city, an official said.