Posted on 04/26/2003 8:21:10 PM PDT by Jean S
TORONTO/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Asian health ministers called on Saturday for checks on all departing passengers at airports to halt the spread of SARS, while the World Health Organization said it may consider dropping a bitterly contested travel warning against Toronto.
As Toronto recorded its 20th death in its battle against SARS on Saturday, the WHO told Canadian television that it will review Canada's situation on Tuesday on whether to lift the warning against nonessential travel to Canada's biggest city.
"There is a chance the advisory could be changed," WHO spokesman Dick Thompson told CBC television.
The WHO announced on Wednesday that travelers should avoid Toronto, along with Beijing, Hong Kong and China's Shanxi and Guangdong provinces.
"I think what is important here is that the right public health decision come out of that. I don't know what that will be," said Thompson.
The decision to slap a travel warning on Toronto caused an uproar in Canada with medical officials complaining the edict was unfair as SARS had not spread into the community but had been contained to the original cluster of cases and health workers.
The SARS outbreak is a public relations disaster for the city and politicians have come under heavy criticism for their handling of the crisis. Prime Minister Jean Chretien was blasted for spending the height of the crisis on holiday in the Caribbean.
Most criticism has been directed at Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman who seemed in television appearances not to know what the WHO was or how many SARS cases there were in his city.
SOMBER BACKDROP
Rising death tolls in Asia and Canada provided a somber backdrop to a meeting in Malaysia of ministers from China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and 10 Southeast Asian states.
"It's mandatory for all countries to undertake pre-departure screening," Malaysian Health Minister Chua Jui Meng told a news conference, referring to a ministerial declaration.
"All SARS suspects, as well as probable cases, will not be allowed to travel, especially beyond their borders" Chua said, summarizing recommendations due before a SARS meeting of Asian heads of government in Bangkok on Tuesday.
At the same time, a WHO official said it may take years to find a vaccine for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, the respiratory virus that has killed at least 289 people and infected 5,000 in more than 20 countries since it emerged in southern China late last year.
President Bush spoke on Saturday with Chinese President Hu Jintao, the White House said.
"The president ... expressed condolences to the families of SARS victims and offered U.S. assistance should it be needed," said White House spokeswoman Mercy Viana.
MORTALITY HIGHER
Professor Roy Anderson, an authority on infectious diseases at Imperial College London, said a study of some 1,400 SARS victims in Hong Kong suggested the virus was more difficult to pass on than first feared, but is also more deadly.
"This is not a highly transmissible infection," Anderson told BBC radio. "It's been effectively contained in most of the developed countries in the world with a very limited number of cases, Britain being a good example."
But Anderson also found that the mortality rate may be as high as 10 percent, considerably worse than the six percent rate maintained by the World Health Organization.
"If one looks carefully at the WHO figures on mortality and recovery rates, it is running, unfortunately, at 10 percent, "Anderson said.
WHO official Mark Salter told reporters the search for an effective vaccine would take time.
"I think we are looking at two years, three years, maybe, before a vaccine," he said, adding that WHO planned to pull together world vaccine experts next week to speed things up.
Asia has borne the brunt of SARS, battering economies and forcing governments to cut growth forecasts as retailers, airlines and tourist businesses are hit.
Singapore has so far suffered most among Southeast Asian nations, with 18 deaths, followed by Vietnam with five, and then Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, with two each.
The disease has caused widespread alarm in mainland China and Hong Kong. China recorded seven new deaths, taking the toll reported to 122 out of about 3,000 cases, while Hong Kong raised its fatality count by six to 121, with 1,527 cases.
In Beijing, people were trying to avoid crowds; some neighborhoods were quarantined and all elementary schools remained closed.
In Hong Kong, the media reported on Saturday a 28-year-old man was the youngest victim so far.
SINGAPORE CRACKDOWN
Singapore said on Saturday a 63-year-old man had died of SARS, bringing its death toll to 18. The city state also reported its youngest victim yet, an 18-month-old girl.
The city state has implemented some of the world's harshest measures to deal with the illness, quarantining nearly 2,800 people and threatening them with hefty fines or six months in jail if they leave their homes.
"Let's take this thing seriously. If you don't behave, you are imperiling your neighbors, yourself, your country and the economy," said Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's senior minister.
Lee, in remarks published on Saturday, said his wife had been quarantined after being treated in hospital next to a patient who was later diagnosed with SARS and had since died.
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