Official: Mystery Pneumonia in Southern China Killed 31 by End of February

TBO.com / AP -- Breaking News ^ | 3/26/2003 | By Audra Ang Associated Press Writer

[ex-Texan]

Official: Mystery Pneumonia in Southern China Killed 31 by End of February

BEIJING (AP) - A mysterious form of pneumonia has killed 31 people in China's southern province of Guangdong through the end of February, a local government spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Health experts say it isn't clear whether the deaths are linked to severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, a fatal respiratory illness that has spread to three continents.

In Guangdong, 24 people died in the provincial capital of Guangzhou and seven were elsewhere in the province, said the spokeswoman for the Guangzhou city government. She would give only her surname, Ye.

By the end of February, there were 792 cases of infection reported throughout the whole province, Ye said. She said 680 of those cases were in Guangzhou and the remainder were in six other cities in Guangdong.

The spokeswoman wouldn't give details on when the deaths occurred.

Until Wednesday, Chinese authorities had confirmed five deaths and 305 people sickened since November - a figure they had stuck to since the middle of last month. It wasn't clear why they waited until now to confirm the additional deaths - or if the new figure included the five original deaths.

The World Health Organization has appealed to China for better cooperation in tracking the illness.

WHO says it is particularly concerned about the spread of SARS in Hong Kong, where many residents were going around town wearing surgical masks in hopes of avoiding infection.

SARS has killed 10 people in Hong Kong out of 17 fatalities worldwide, according to WHO figures.

The Geneva-based organization has sent a team to China to investigate a suspected link to an outbreak of atypical pneumonia in November in Guangdong.

[TaxRelief]

Will the bodies be available for testing? What do the Chinese do with their dead, cremation or burial?

[per loin]

China begins to tell a bit of the truth about Guangdong. Has anyone heard if they are allowing WHO to visit the province yet?

[CathyRyan]

But because outside experts have been stalled in their efforts to go to Guangdong, there has been no independent verification of the number of SARS cases in China, whether cases have occurred elsewhere in the country and whether transmission has stopped.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/875843/posts

[per loin]

China's continuing secrecy increases the suspicion that they are hiding a very dirty secret.

[CathyRyan]

I think you are right. I wonder with the binary if this is something that got away from them.