Thailand's health ministry reported the country's ninth probable SARS case yesterday, while two new cases in Hong Kong dashed hopes the jurisdiction could soon be removed from the World Health Organization's (WHO) list of SARS-affected territories.
The Thai case was an unnamed 38-year-old female laborer recently returned from Taiwan. She had been hospitalized in northeastern Khon Kaen, suffering from fever, cough, sore throat and muscle pain, a health ministry statement said.
"It can be concluded that this case was in line with the World Health Organization definition of SARS from her symptoms, and background that she returned from a SARS outbreak area," Charal Trinvuthipong, director general of the ministry's disease control department, said in statement.
"She was listed as Thailand's ninth probable case of SARS," he said, adding that the WHO had been notified of the case.
More than 100,000 Thais are employed in Taiwan, which has reported 676 cases of SARS and 81 deaths.
Late last month Thailand urged its citizens working in Taiwan not to flee the island as the SARS crisis escalated on the island.
China's health ministry reported one new case of SARS and two deaths yesterday, after two successive days with no new cases.
The new case was in southwestern China's Sichuan province, which has reported 20 recent SARS cases and two deaths, the ministry said.
In all, China has now recorded 5,329 cases and 338 deaths.
Beijing, the world's worst SARS-affected city, reported the two new deaths yesterday, taking its total to 2,522 cases and 183 deaths.
City hospitals are still treating more than 900 probable SARS patients, according to health ministry figures.
WHO officials have said they are likely to lift warnings soon against travel to four northern areas close to Beijing.
In Hong Kong yesterday, officials reported two new SARS cases and recorded two deaths from the illness.
The latest new cases involved a man who was brought to hospital with SARS symptoms, the source of which health officers were still trying to pinpoint, said Hospital Authority official Liu Shaoi-haei.
The other was an elderly woman, with chronic disease, who is believed to have been infected by other SARS patients while in hospital, Liu said.
The latest two fatalities, involving two women aged 59 and 90, with chronic illnesses, brought to 286 the number of deaths from 1,750 infections.
The latest new cases have dashed hopes for Hong Kong to fulfil a WHO criterion of maintaining a zero infection rate for 20 days so the city can be removed from WHO list of SARS-affected territories.
In Toronto, health officials lowered the SARS death toll by one on Thursday while reporting that the latest outbreak in Canada's biggest city appeared to be following the global trend of remission.
A 60-year-old man who died May 20 had been designated earlier this week as the 32nd SARS fatality in the Toronto area.
Dr. James Young, the Ontario commissioner of public safety, told a news briefing that further review of the case showed the man died of other causes.
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