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Hong Kong to Close Schools with Pneumonia Patients

— HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong, which is battling to stop the spread of a deadly form of pneumonia, ordered all schools be disinfected and said on Sunday it would shut for a week any school with a child or staff member ill with the disease.

Education Secretary Arthur Li also told a news conference he was ordering about 180 children with family members infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) to stop attending classes for a week from Monday.

Officials say five schools have already been ordered closed. School children or staff with sick family members in the future should also not go to school for a week, he said.

But he stressed the 180 children with sick family members were not, at present, sick themselves.

Local health officials had earlier said six children were infected and five of them went to school. Li said all the sick children had contracted the disease from family members, and there had so far been no transmission between schoolchildren.

"More children will be infected in the coming week," Li said, without elaborating. "We believe with these measures, we can prevent the spread of the virus in schools."

Most of the sick are in Hong Kong, where the number of patients has risen steadily.

Singapore Fashion Festival expects to attract 80,000 amidst global situation

By Hasnita A Majid/Ong Chung Hui
Amidst a gloomy global situation, the Fashion Festival hopes to be a bright spark, and the organisers hope to attract 80,000 people.
This is despite its main draw, well-known designer, Azzedine Alaia, has cancelled his show here.

But fashion pundits won't be disappointed as another fashion guru, Giambattista Valli from the House of Ungaro, is stepping in.

Giambattista Valli, Emanuel Ungaro's artistic director, said: "Asia is very important, not only as a business, but it's the attention that customers can give you. I think some of the European markets are a little bit saturated at the moment and I think it is the fresh attitude, this fresh way to welcome new styles."

Singapore Tourism Board says that although there are some cancellations of tours, it still expects the Festival to draw the crowd.

Yea that's the ticket we'll put on a show...

Virologists at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control have been doing specialized testing on patient samples from the B.C. and Ontario cases.

It's sending specimens and results to the National Microbial Laboratory in Winnipeg.

"We've been trying a bunch of different techniques to find the agents," said Dr. Mel Krajden, head of the virology section at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.

Krajden and his staff analyzed swabs taken from the patients.

He has found no evidence to show the virus is from the same family that causes measles and mumps, as scientists are suggesting.
"Until it's confirmed more consistently, we can't say what it is," he said.

Health Canada has warned travellers to avoid Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam.
Health officers are also monitoring passengers arriving from Asia at Vancouver International Airport.

Dr. Bob Hancock, a microbiologist at the University of B.C., said our aging population is becoming more exposed to infection.
Diseases are moving quickly around the world through air travel.

Meanwhile,
antibiotic resistance is increasing.

"We have to get a bit more concerned than we might have been 20 years ago," he said