Singapore - 740 people quarantined, 14 new cases on Monday, Hospitals close, SARS spreads

SINGAPORE - Singapore's government on Monday ordered about 740 people who may have been exposed to victims of a mysterious flu-like illness to stay home for 10 days in a bid to contain the disease.

Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang said he was invoking the Infectious Diseases Act for what could be the first time since Singapore gained independence in 1965.

The city state of 4 million people has recorded 65 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, including 14 new cases reported on Monday, Lim said. Twelve patients are in serious condition in an intensive care unit, he added.

"The number in ICU will increase, unfortunately, and there may be fatalities," Lim told reporters. "A stronger wall is now created to break the chain of infection," he said.

Any quarantined person caught outside their home could face a fine of up to $2,825 for a first infraction and $10,000 for a second offense, officials said.

Those on the quarantine list include people who may have had exposure to infected people, including children at a school and a daycare, which will be closed for the duration of the quarantine.

Entire households will be quarantined and the government plans to arrange to deliver groceries to them and compensate people who could suffer financial difficulties due to lost income, Lim said.

National Environment Agency officers will monitor the quarantined people daily, checking for symptoms of the disease, the health ministry said in a statement. SARS has made 386 people around the world ill and killed 11 people in the past three weeks, according to WHO figures. Experts suspect it is linked to an earlier outbreak of an unidentified disease in China, where officials say 305 people have fallen ill and five have died.

As part of efforts to further isolate patients, Singapore's Tan Tock Seng Hospital, which houses the Communicable Diseases Center, will now only admit patients suspected of having the disease, the minister said over the weekend. Other patients have been transferred to affiliated hospitals.

By Tan Ee Lyn

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Four more people died in Asia on Monday from a mystery pneumonia virus, bringing the death toll worldwide to at least 22, and Hong Kong's hospital chief was taken ill with symptoms of the disease.

A nurse and a doctor died in Vietnam and at least two people succumbed in Hong Kong as Singapore said it would quarantine over 700 people in a bid to contain the illness in the city-state.

The virus, spread swiftly around the world by air travelers, has infected hundreds in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Canada and Germany after first showing up in southern China late last year. Suspected cases have been reported in the United States, Britain and Australia.

A senior Hong Kong doctor blasted the government for not doing enough to control the disease, which has taken a heavy toll on tourism in parts of Asia.

"The government must work faster than the virus," said Henry Yeung, president of the Hong Kong Doctors' Union. "It must get everyone to wear surgical masks and all schools must shut for two weeks," Yeung told Reuters.

William Ho, chief executive of Hong Kong's Hospital Authority, was admitted on Sunday, a government spokeswoman said on Monday.

Ho had been working on the outbreak for the past few weeks, visiting hospitals, briefing senior government officials, including leader Tung Chee-hwa, and meeting the press.

Experts believe the disease is caused by a new virus from the paramyxovirus family, a large group of microbes including germs that cause measles, mumps and respiratory infections.

Initial symptoms include high fever, dry cough, chills and severe breathing problems. Even healthy, athletic adults can end up on a respirator within five days.

While the disease is believed to have started late last year in southern China, killing five and infecting 300 others, Hong Kong is now its epicenter.

Airports and airlines around the world have begun barring passengers showing flu-like symptoms.

EARLY TREATMENT NEEDED

Hong Kong doctors have been treating patients with ribavirin -- an anti-virus drug -- and steroids. They say this works for most patients if treated early.

Infections crept up in Hong Kong on Monday, bringing the total there to 265, with 260 suffering full-blown pneumonia.

Workers disinfected a handful of schools over the weekend after several children were taken ill with the disease and will begin cleaning about 2,000 more schools on Monday. Two more children were infected by Monday, bringing the total to eight.

In Singapore, some 740 people would be isolated under the rarely used Infectious Disease Act, the health ministry said.

Those quarantined must stay home for 10 days and minimize contact with other people. Anyone caught breaking the order faces a maximum fine of S$5,000 ($2,834) for a first offence, and S$10,000 for a second, the ministry said on Monday.

"Singaporeans must not be shocked if one or two (patients) may not recover," Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang told reporters.

In Vietnam, doctors at the Vietnam-France Hospital, site of the first outbreak in Hanoi, said a 43-year-old nurse and a 36-year-old doctor died Monday afternoon.

The illness killed a Vietnamese nurse from the same hospital on March 15 and a French doctor on March 19. More than 50 people are infected in Vietnam.

Vietnam has tried to reassure travelers the situation is stable. "For the time being, the epidemic has basically been put under control and contained," the foreign ministry said.

Washington has urged U.S. citizens to consider leaving Vietnam and said it was offering free flights out of the country to family members of U.S. diplomats.

A delegation of five experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) met health officials in China on Monday, but no details of their talks were immediately available.

The health agency has raised hopes the disease can be curbed and Hong Kong researchers say they have designed a diagnostic test, but WHO says the identity of the virus remains elusive.

A team from the World Health Organization arrived in Beijing on Sunday to determine whether the outbreak in Guangdong was related to the disease that had spread from Hong Kong.

Although listed among the 15 countries reporting cases of the disease to the World Health Organization, China is the only government not to give any information on how many people have been infected or killed by the outbreak.

The reluctance of the Chinese government to make public information fueled panic in Guangdong as people snapped up supplies of traditional medicines, antibiotics and vinegar for use as a disinfectant.

The disease prompted the World Health Organization to raise a ''global alert'' for the first time in a decade due to the speed, severity and highly infectious nature of the disease.

Yeoh described spending time with William Ho, chief executive of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, just hours before he checked into the hospital suffering severe pneumonia.

''The disease was very, very quick,'' Yeoh said. ''We both attended a function on Saturday, but by Sunday night he had a high a fever, chills and had to be hospitalized.''

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