Posted on 04/17/2003 1:22:45 PM PDT by yonif
Doctors saved the baby of a pregnant woman dying of the respiratory ailment known as SARS, delivering the child by Caesarean section, hospital officials said. The mother was one of nine people whose deaths were reported Tuesday as Hong Kong struggles to combat the disease.
The global toll topped 150, defying Asia's battle to stop severe acute respiratory syndrome. U.S. experts warned the just-revealed genetic code for the suspected SARS virus doesn't explain how it arose but should lead to better tests to detect it.
The SARS mother's baby was born April 1,according to Hong Kong's Princess Margaret Hospital, which declined to release information on the baby's gender or condition.
The Chinese-language Ming Pao daily said the baby was not full-term but doctors decided the 34-year-old mother was so sick they should go ahead with the birth.
The newspaper reported the father had just recovered from SARS and the family had lived in Amoy Gardens, a hard-hit apartment complex with some 300 cases of the flu-like illness.
The hospital said the mother was admitted on March 26 with SARS symptoms that quickly worsened. She died late Monday.
In mainland China on Tuesday, a World Health Organization team visited two military hospitals in Beijing and met with officials of a third to check rumors of unreported SARS cases.
Team spokesman James Palmer characterized the visits as "cooperative" but gave no details including the hospitals' names or what the visiting doctors found.
SARS is thought to have started in southern Guangdong province last November, but its extent in China only became known recently. Chinese officials have been accused of underreporting the crisis, which Premier Wen Jiabao last weekend described as "grave."
He ordered that passengers on airlines, trains and boats be screened and on Tuesday state media said buses, taxis and public facilities would be disinfected.
At least 154 SARS victims have died around the world, out of more than 3,200 cases, most of them in Asia.
Also Tuesday, the WHO hosted a telephone conference of doctors to discuss apparent "superspreaders," SARS patients who have infected many other people. WHO experts said the discussion confirmed what they had long suspected that all the superspreaders were people infected very early in the SARS outbreak before doctors know what protective measures to take.
From the moment experts realized that patients had to be isolated and doctors and nurses had to wear protective gear, no new superspreaders have emerged, the WHO says.
In Canada, health officials said they had linked 31 possible SARS cases, including members of a religious community and two physicians, to the funeral of a SARS victim. Officials only determined the person had the disease after the funeral.
The 500 members of the Toronto group were told to go into quarantine for 10 days. Toronto, Canada's largest city, is the epicenter of the largest SARS outbreak outside of Asia.
Canada has reported 13 deaths, mainland China 64 and Singapore 12. Vietnam has had five deaths, Thailand two and Malaysia one.
There have been a 193 suspected cases in the United States but no known deaths.
The nine deaths reported Tuesday in Hong Kong were its biggest one-day fatality increase since the SARS outbreak reached the territory last month, pushing its toll to 56.
Four deaths were people in their 30s and 40s with no prior health problems, adding to a worrying number of fit patients not responding to treatment. Most of Hong Kong's fatalities have been elderly people or patients suffering from other chronic medical conditions, such as heart or kidney disease.
The economic damage from SARS was also spreading in the region.
A trade association representing 17 major airlines in the Asia-Pacific region urged governments not to impose travel bans to fight SARS, saying it has given the region's carriers their worst crisis ever. Malaysia is among places that have tightened restrictions, temporarily banning tourists from China and revoking visa-free travel for those from Hong Kong, Canada and Vietnam.
The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines said its members have canceled about 650 flights a week in April after the WHO warned people against traveling to Hong Kong and China's Guangdong province, and some countries took other steps to hinder travel.
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