WHO Lifts Hong Kong Travel Advisory
By JONATHAN FOWLER
GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization lifted its SARS-related travel advisories Friday against Hong Kong and the Chinese province of Guangdong, saying the outbreaks are under control there.
Researchers in Hong Kong, meanwhile, said they may have traced the disease to civet cats – a delicacy eaten by some Chinese.
An American physician with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who was helping Taiwan battle SARS left the island on a charter flight for the Atlanta on Friday after developing a fever and other symptoms possibly caused by the virus.
WHO continued to advise against all nonessential travel to the Chinese capital, Beijing, and to the regions of Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Tianjin, as well as to Taiwan, because of continuing new transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome.
“Guangdong was the first place in the world to have cases of SARS but I am pleased to note that due to the efforts of the local and national health authorities, with support from WHO, the outbreaks in Guangdong and Hong Kong are being contained,” said WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland.
In Hong Kong, the number of new cases each day has on average been below five for the past six days and the number of infections has dropped below 60, WHO said.
“The pattern of the outbreak shows a sustained decline since the peak of new cases in late March,” it said.
In Guangdong, the number of new cases on average has been below five for 11 days and the number of people hospitalized with SARS fell below 60 on May 20.
“Due to the efforts of the provincial health authorities, the extent of local transmission has fallen to low levels over recent weeks,” WHO said.
There also have been no recent reports of cases being exported to other countries from Hong Kong or Guangdong. All new cases in the past 20 days have occurred in people who were “already identified as contacts of a person with SARS and under active surveillance by the local health authorities,” WHO added.
SARS has infected more than 8,000 people worldwide and killed at least 689, the vast majority in China and Hong Kong.
“The outbreak in many areas of China is ongoing, and will require continuing intensive efforts as well as a rapid injection of new resources to fully contain SARS,” WHO said.
In Hong Kong, local researchers announced they believe the disease came from civet cats, which are sold as food in China. Civet cats are not true cats, but short-haired mammals with long bodies, short legs, and tails. They resemble small raccoons or weasels.
University of Hong Kong researchers said that to prevent more outbreaks of SARS in people, the cats and other game food animals should be raised, slaughtered and sold under careful monitoring. The researchers had previously said SARS came from animals but they had not been sure which kind.
Also Friday, a private jet departed Taiwan for the United States carrying an American physician who came down with possible SARS symptoms. He had been sent to the island by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Taiwan’s SARS Control Committee identified the doctor as Chesley L. Richards Jr., an infection control expert.
Richards arrived in Taiwan on May 15 and had visited the emergency rooms and intensive-care units at two Taipei hospitals where SARS outbreaks were reported, Taiwanese officials said.
This week, he developed a fever and a cough – common SARS symptoms, CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding told reporters Thursday at the centers’ headquarters in Atlanta.
WHO said that the SARS virus has infected chains of up to 15 people and it appears to be just as hardy in its last victim as in its first, suggesting its ability to spread isn’t weakening. Some other viruses mutate over time, and their ability to transmit weakens.
WHO says it is seeking $200 million to launch a fund to help Asian nations combat SARS through medical surveillance and analysis.
Taiwan reported 55 new SARS cases Friday but no new deaths. The island’s total number of infections is 538 and the death toll is 60. That gives the island the third-highest toll after mainland China and Hong Kong.
In Canada, health officials say they fear that four people in a Toronto hospital may be ill with SARS. All four are in a respiratory isolation ward, two in critical condition.
Health officials, who learned of the cases late Thursday and do not yet know how the people may have been exposed to the disease, said they cannot say for certain if these are the city’s first new SARS cases in over a month. The city last reported a new case of SARS on April 19.
In Singapore, a newspaper reported that some parents are keeping their children chilled with ice water and air conditioning before classes so they won’t be sent home with suspected fevers as part of anti-SARS measures.
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