Posted on 03/31/2003 4:04:04 AM PST by chance33_98
Discoverer Of SARS Dies From It
Italian Doctor Dies In Thailand
Posted: 8:27 a.m. EST March 29, 2003
GENEVA -- The World Health Organization doctor who first identified the outbreak of a deadly mystery illness has died of the disease.
The U.N. agency said Italian Dr. Carlo Urbani died Saturday in Thailand.
He became infected while working in Vietnam.
Urbani, who was 46, was the first to identify severe acute respiratory syndrome in an American businessman who had been admitted to a hospital in Hanoi. The businessman later died.
The flu-like illness has killed at least 55 people and sickened almost 1,500.
The largest number of cases and deaths has occurred in China's Guangdong province, where an earlier outbreak began in November.
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