331 deaths re-checked for SARS

The Department of Health said yesterday it will speed up its inquiry into the true causes of death of 331 people whose bodies were cremated between late April and early last month over SARS concerns.

Department Health Deputy Director-General Lee Lung-teng (李龍騰) made the remarks at a daily briefing on the nation's SARS situation.

To dispel allegations that Taiwan might have underreported its SARS death toll, Lee said the department is coordinating with the Ministry of the Interior in checking how the 331 people died.

Lee out that according to the World Health Organization's (WHO) regulations, only those who passed away with anomalies in their lungs could be counted as SARS-related deaths. Among the 331 deceased, however, there were a number who did not display symptoms of pneumonia.

Lee that doctors and hospitals were now very astute and cautious when handling sudden-death cases resulting from high fever. For these cases they would usually issue death certificates with the cause of death specified as "suspected SARS cases."

Lee that although the 331 patients' death certificates listed them as suspected SARS patients, after the cases were reviewed by a department panel of experts, only 83 were judged to be SARS-related deaths.

Furthermore, only about 20 of them were found to have been infected with the coronavirus.

But now they will be reviewing all the cases, Lee said, and if any case match one of the following criteria -- having had a SARS-contact history, the coronavirus or pneumonia -- it would be categorized as a SARS-related death.

According to media reports, the WHO originally planned to lift its warning against non-essential trips to Taiwan last week. But the world health body decided to keep its travel advisory in place after a journalist questioned the accuracy of the nation's SARS fatalities at a WHO news conference in Geneva, the reports claimed.

Up yesterday, there were a total of 698 probable SARS cases and 83 deaths, according to the department.

Meanwhile, the Control Yuan is also investigating whether the government has underreported the total number of SARS-related deaths.

Control Yuan member Chao Chang-ping (趙昌平) said last Friday that he was examining discrepancies between the SARS death toll compiled by the department and that of local governments.

According to the department, SARS had killed 81 people between March and last Friday. But citing figures compiled by city and county governments, Chao said the number of cremated bodies, including the suspected and probable SARS cases, added up to more than 300.

Chao whether, in the early days of the epidemic, some patients suspected of having contracted SARS died before they were tested for the virus. It's also possible they died before test results were known, he said.

"Some might have died of diseases other than SARS, but we need to know if the death toll reported by the Department of Health is indeed accurate," Chao said.