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Billion SARS cases feared By Mary Papadakis 27Apr03 MORE than one billion people worldwide could be infected by the deadly SARS virus within a year, a leading UK scientist has warned. Dr Patrick Dixon, a specialist in predicting global trends based at London's Development Management School, said SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) had the potential to turn into a pandemic and infect more people than AIDS. The grim prediction comes as a Melbourne infection control specialist warned the virus could destroy Third World countries. Glenys Harrington, who flew to Manila yesterday to join the World Health Organisation's assault on SARS,...

HUNDE, China — An hour south of Guangzhou, the Dongyuan animal market presents endless opportunities for an emerging germ. In hundreds of cramped stalls that stink of blood and guts, wholesale food vendors tend to veritable zoos that will grace Guangdong Province's tables: snakes, chickens, cats, turtles, badgers, frogs. And, in summer, sometimes rats, too.They are all stacked in cages one on top of another — which in turn serve as seats, card tables and dining quarters for the poor migrants who work there. On a recent morning, near stall 17, there were beheaded snakes, disemboweled frogs and feathers...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- A Brown University faculty member and a 2-year-old Minnesota boy are being monitored as possible SARS cases - both recent visitors to Toronto. Toronto is the epicenter of the biggest outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome outside of Asia, where the disease originated. More than 250 probable or suspected cases have been reported in the Toronto area, with 19 deaths so far. The unnamed Brown faculty member in the division of biology and medicine has been asked to stay away from campus. Students who have been in contact with the professor have been informed, according to...

4,000 Quarantined in Beijing as Suspected SARS Cases Climb EIJING, April 25 — At least 4,000 Beijing residents with exposure to a contagious respiratory disease are being kept in isolation, often in their own homes, health authorities said today, and a second major hospital was put under total quarantine, with virtually no one allowed to enter or leave. City education officials also revealed that 300 college students who had contact with infected people suffering the dangerous new disease, known as SARS, have been sequestered in a military training camp for two weeks' observation. As Beijing began a stringent new quarantine...