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SARS deaths break 100, cockroach link floated

SARS fatalities Country / Deaths * China 53 * Hong Kong 25 * Singapore 8 * Vietnam 4 * Canada 10 * Thailand 2 * Malaysia 1 Source: Reuters

Cockroaches may have carried a deadly flu-like virus through a Hong Kong apartment block, a top health official said yesterday as the disease spread to one of the city's crowded new towns.

In Singapore, air force paramedics have joined the battle against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the government said yesterday internet-linked cameras might be used to enforce home quarantine orders.

But in China's Guangdong province, where SARS first emerged, officials said yesterday the rate of new infections was down sharply and the outbreak there was under control.

Worldwide, at least 103 people have died from SARS and 2,750 have been infected in about 20 countries -- nearly half of them in China.

At least three more people died in Beijing from SARS than officially reported, doctors in Beijing said yesterday as fears spread and hospitals disclosed suspected cases not previously revealed.

"It's impossible there are only 19 SARS cases in Beijing," said a doctor at the Beijing University No. 1 Hospital. "There are no beds left in our epidemic ward."

Beijing has reported 19 cases and four deaths out of 1,279 infections and 53 deaths nationwide, most of them in Guangdong, where the virus first appeared last November.

Hong Kong Deputy Director of Health Leung Pak-yin told a radio program cockroaches may have carried infected waste from sewage pipes into apartments at Amoy Gardens in densely populated Kowloon district.

If proved true, it would represent an alarming development in the swiftly spreading epidemic in Hong Kong, a city of seven million people filled with densely populated apartment blocks.

"The drainage may be the reason. It is possible that the cockroaches carried the virus [from the drainage pipes] into the homes," Leung said.

SARS raced through a block in Amoy Gardens in late March, infecting nearly 300 people and forcing residents in the building and others in the complex to flee in panic. The speed of the outbreak has baffled health officials.

SARS symptoms include high fever, chills and breathing difficulties and doctors think the virus is spread through droplets by sneezing and coughing or by direct contact.

If it can be carried by cockroaches it would be hard to contain.

The spread of the disease is baffling Singapore health officials, too.

SARS has infected staff at five of Singapore's six main public hospitals. After a lull in new cases, the government reported two more deaths and seven new cases on Monday, its highest numbers in two weeks.

The new cases come after the government imposed strict measures ranging from home quarantine to sweeping school closures to try to curb an illness spread by air travellers.

Eight people have died of SARS in Singapore and 113 have been infected. The government has quarantined hundreds exposed to the disease, ordering them to stay at home.

Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang said that internet-linked "webcams" might be installed to enforce the quarantine orders after cases of breaking home quarantine, despite the threat of a fine of S$2,000 to S$10,000 (US$1,125 to US$5,624).

"At certain times of the day they will have to report to the webcam," he said.

Hong Kong has the second highest number of infections in the world outside of China.

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