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"But unfortunately the Chinese kept it hidden for several months."

if they kept it hidden for several months, its not much of an epidemic , is it?

China reveals much larger outbreak _ 34 deaths, 792 cases _ and WHO confirms it's SARS

For the first time, Chinese government officials revealed Wednesday that nearly three dozen people have died and almost 800 became ill in a mysterious outbreak that Western medical investigators confirm was the beginning spread of a new flu-like disease.

The new numbers raised the worldwide death total from severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, to 51, with 1,325 cases since mid-November.

Until now, Chinese authorities said only five people had died from a pneumonia-like illness that struck southern Guangdong province. The new count of 34 includes three deaths in Beijing.

"Everything we've seen so far indicates it's the same disease," said Dr. Meirion Evans, member of a WHO team that has studied the cases in southern China.

"We're getting a more complete picture. It's certainly been one of the objectives of the mission to clarify whether the outbreak in China was the same disease as what's been seen outside of China."

For weeks, Chinese officials said only 305 people were sickened in an outbreak that started in November.

But a spokeswoman for the Guangzhou city government, who identified herself only by the surname Ye, said Wednesday that 792 cases of atypical pneumonia were reported in the province by the end of February, putting the worldwide case number at more than 1,300.

Health authorities in Hong Kong have said the disease spread when a sick Beijing professor stayed at the Metropole Hotel in late February, infecting six other guests, who then carried it to Singapore, Vietnam and Canada.

World Health Organization scientists say the disease spreads when victims cough or sneeze in close contact with others. Most SARS victims have been family members of those who have the disease or health workers treating them.

But the spread among strangers in the Hong Kong hotel and among nine tourists on a March 15 China Air flight from Hong Kong to Beijing has heightened fears.

Not much of an epidemic, but very interesting if you enjoy analysing the little wiggly creatures...