The Department of Health last night classified severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) as a statutory communicable disease after four employees of a Taipei-based engineering consultancy were found to have caught the atypical form of pneumonia.
The new designation provides a legal basis for central and local authorities to tackle the disease and requires that all cases be reported to the department so that they can be monitored.
Everyone entering the country must now fill out a declaration of their health situation and civil servants will be banned from visiting China, Hong Kong and Vietnam, where the majority of SARS cases have been reported.
The four employees of CTCI Corp fell ill after taking Cathay Pacific Airways flight CX510 from Hong Kong last Friday.
The new cases bring to 10 the number of people who "probably" have SARS, out of 41 suspected cases.
Another CTCI employee who traveled with them has symptoms of mild influenza and is under observation. The five are staying at three hospitals in Taipei.
CTCI Corp said it would shut its offices for four days to disinfect them and give medical checkups to other employees who had traveled to China in the past two weeks.
Chen Tsai-chin (
The Department of Health has set up a toll-free line for those on the flight who may have symptoms of SARS: 0800-024-582.
As of press time yesterday, 10 passengers had been ordered not to leave their homes.
"We hope those we have been unable to reach will come forward to contact the center, as we don't have an exact list to trace the addresses of all the people on board the plane," Chen said.
The health department warned the public not to travel to China, Hong Kong and Vietnam.
Chen said World Health Organization (WHO) officials on Wednesday had begun considering SARS cases in southern China as being part of the same outbreak that has killed people in Asia and Canada.
Taipei City's Bureau of Health yesterday said that at least 1,000 people had direct or indirect contact with the five CTCI employees and might have been infected. It has put these people on a priority watch list for preventive quarantine.
Bureau Director Chiou Shu-ti (
Chiou said the city might consider impose quarantine measures on those who have had contact with SARS patients.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday that airlines should continue rejecting passengers with symptoms of SARS but that special flights could be arranged to bring back China-based Taiwanese businesspeople who might have contracted the disease.
additional reporting by staff reporter Melody Chen
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