Posted on 04/27/2003 10:28:30 AM PDT by Lessismore
Another 24 people have died from SARS in Asia, as the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) urged countries to cooperate to contain "the first epidemic of this century."
Countries meanwhile stepped up their defences against the virus, with China shutting down entertainment venues in its capital and Taiwan banning visitors from affected countries.
Hong Kong reported 12 more deaths from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), taking the total death toll to 133.
It was the second time this month that a record dozen fatalities were reported in a single day.
China reported nine more fatalities, eight of them in the capital, as Taiwan reported its first SARS death and Singapore's death toll climbed by two to 21.
With China's national death toll standing at 131, fear of the disease deepened in the capital, which has been worst affected, and the city's government ordered all cinemas, theatres, karaoke bars and Internet cafes to close.
Beijing also stopped marriage registrations in a bid to curb large-scale weddings to boost its defences against SARS, state media reported.
The moves were the latest drastic measures taken by the city government to contain SARS. Schools and universities have already been closed, two hospitals have been isolated, 4,000 people have been quarantined at home and road blocks have been set up to prevent sick people leaving the city.
Deserted streets and empty plazas reflected the awful fact that of all the people who are reported to have succumbed to SARS worldwide, one in six have died in Beijing.
China's new health minister, Vice Premier Wu Yi, began her first day on the job Sunday by warning officials to come clean over SARS or face punishment.
"Any local official who is found to be neglecting his duty will be severely punished," said Wu, known as China's "Iron Lady".
Panic about the deadly virus spread in Taiwan, where a man died late Saturday from SARS to become the island's first fatality.
In a further step to contain the virus, Taipei announced a temporary ban on visitors from the SARS-affected areas of Singapore, Vietnam and Toronto, adding to restrictions on visitors from Hong Kong and China.
The government will also quarantine for 10 days anyone who arrives from affected countries, officials said on the island, which has 55 probable cases of the disease.
The families of medical workers at the Taipei's Hoping Municipal Hospital protested at the facility on Sunday to demand that their quarantined relatives be allowed to return home.
The hospital's 900 staff were on Thursday ordered not to leave the hospital for two weeks after a mass outbreak of the disease there.
Its 200 patients were also isolated.
China's battle against SARS is seen meanwhile as key to overcoming the global health scare caused by the illness, which has also claimed lives in Canada (20), Malaysia (2), the Philippines (2), Malaysia (2) and Vietnam (5).
SARS has now killed 317 people and infected more than 5,000 worldwide, most of them in Asia, while experts have warned that a cure or vaccine could be years away.
The head of the WHO, Gro Harlem Brundtland, urged countries to work together to stop the spread of the disease.
"At the moment we still have a chance to contain it, and to have it go down in places where outbreaks are happening and avoid its spreading to new countries," she told BBC television from Geneva.
She added that if swift action were not taken, "we will not have done the right thing with the first epidemic of this century."
In a bid to draw up unified plans to control the crisis, leaders from across East and Southeast Asia will hold an unprecedented summit on Tuesday in Bangkok.
At a meeting of East Asian health ministers in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday ahead of the leaders' summit, countries vowed to enforce strict screening measures at all airports and other exit points to prevent suspected SARS cases from leaving.
Scientists are focusing efforts on developing a speedy and accurate test to diagnose the illness which would have a major impact on calming global fear over SARS because the illness begins with very common symptoms such as a dry cough and fever.
The WHO meanwhile said Sunday that it was too early to know whether there is a danger of SARS becoming a pandemic like tuberculosis or AIDS.
But WHO epidemiologist Isabelle Natal said the most frightening aspects of the viral pneumonia were that "it is a new disease for which we have no treatment," that hospital staff were "in the front line" at risk of contracting the disease, and that it was being spread "ultra rapidly" by air travel.
Obi Wan Kenobi
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