Struggling to contain the worldwide spread of a deadly flu-like illness, worried Asian governments yesterday invoked emergency measures, including quarantine camps for hundreds of Hong Kong residents who had been held in isolation in their contaminated apartment building.
At least 63 people have died since the first outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, was reported in November in Southern China and then spread to three continents.
An 83-year-old Hong Kong resident yesterday became the latest victim of the disease, about which much remains a mystery to global health authorities.
Officials said 240 residents of Block E of the Amoy Gardens Apartment complex were being moved last night to two camps, normally used for vacationers in the suburban New Territories and one on Hong Kong island.
The building had been sealed off Monday amid fears that many people living there might be infected.
Authorities in China urged physicians treating SARS cases to disinfect everything they touch and wear 12-layers of surgical masks.
China's Foreign Ministry said British Prime Minister Tony Blair had postponed a planned trip to Beijing, but denied it was due to SARS fears.
Scientists have yet to identify the disease that has sickened more than 1,700 and they are working hard to find a cure.
Its initial symptoms include fever, dry cough and shortness of breath. Hong Kong doctors say some victims have responded well to antibodies from others who recovered from the disease.
Nurses were posted at Singapore's airport and identified seven suspected cases within their first 20 hours of duty. They were screening about 35 flights a day from Vietnam, Hong Kong, China and Ontario, Canada -- all hit by the disease.
"If we suspect a case or think a person is not feeling well we give them a mask and take them to hospital," said Albert Tjoeng, spokesman at the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore.
Four recreational activity camps in rural Hong Kong areas could be turned into quarantine centers if the Health Department decides it's necessary, said Gordon Tam, a spokesman for the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.
The Olympic Council of Asia decided to shift the site of its April 22 to April 23 meeting from Vietnam, where four people have died from SARS, to Thailand, an official of the Thai National Olympic Council said. The World Economic Forum postponed a meeting of international business and government leaders that had been scheduled for April 14 to April 15 in Beijing.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday that experts hope to pinpoint the cause soon, and signs continue to point to the coronavirus, which causes about one-fifth of all colds.
In a perplexing twist, the germ inside the Hong Kong apartment building seemed to be spreading vertically, a WHO official said.
"They are finding that the infections are in people living in apartments on top of each other, only in one area of this apartment block," virologist Klaus Stohr said at WHO headquarters in Geneva.
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