The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) crisis deepened yesterday as Hong Kong reported nine more fatalities, pushing the global death toll past 150, and US experts warned that the just revealed genetic code for the disease doesn't explain how it started or how to stop it.
As Asia struggled to beat back the spread of the virus, Canadian authorities announced they have identified a new cluster of cases among mourners who went to a victim's funeral.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said gene sequencing will help create accurate diagnostic tests and increases the chance that a drug or vaccine will be found to defeat the virus, but that could take weeks or even months in some cases.
At least 154 people have died of SARS, which has infected more than 3,000. Most victims have been in Asia.
The nine deaths in Hong Kong, its biggest one-day fatality increase since the SARS outbreak hit the territory last month, pushed its toll to 56.
Four of the deaths were people in their 30s and 40s with no prior health problems, adding to fears that some fit patients are not responding to treatment.
One of the deaths was a 34-year-old pregnant woman whose baby was saved by Caesarean section, hospital officials said.
It was not clear when the birth took place or what condition the baby was in.
In China, the World Health Organization said investigators visited two military hospitals in Beijing that are rumored to hold unreported cases. The organization released no details of the visits.
SARS is thought to have started in Guangdong Province last November, but its extent in China only became known recently. Chinese officials have been accused of underreporting the crisis, which Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) last weekend described as "grave."
He ordered passengers on airlines, trains and boats be screened and yesterday the state media said buses, taxis and other public facilities would be disinfected.
China has reported 64 deaths, Hong Kong 56, Canada 13 and Singapore 13, including two suspected fatalities. Vietnam has had five deaths, Thailand two and Malaysia one.
In Canada, health officials said they had linked 31 possible SARS cases including members of a religious community and two physicians who attended the April 1 funeral of a victim of the pneumonia-like disease.
Sheela Basrur, the chief medical officer of health in Toronto, said some of the cases had previously been identified.
Toronto is the epicenter of the largest SARS outbreak outside of Asia.
During the weekend Canadian researchers published the entire genetic sequence of the new type of coronavirus believed to be the cause of SARS. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released similar information on Monday.
The center's director, Julie Gerberding, described the breakthrough as "unprecedented in the history of science. But it is not the magic bullet for dealing with SARS."
The gene sequencing will help create accurate diagnostic tests and increases the chance that a drug or vaccine will be found to defeat the virus, but it's something that could take weeks or even months in some cases, she said.
In Hong Kong, where 1,232 SARS cases have been reported, doctors from one badly hit hospital denied accusations that poor infection controls may have worsened the crisis there.
In a letter published in a newspaper, more than 100 doctors and medical professors at Prince of Wales Hospital called the allegations "hostile" and "very damaging to the morale of the frontline staff," which could end up affecting patients.
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