Singapore's largest hospital struggled to contain the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) yesterday after tracing the origin of a mysterious batch of infections -- a man in his 60s whose multiple ailments masked the illness while he unwittingly passed it on to 19 people.
Over the border in Malaysia, officials said 13 crew of a cruise ship which had sailed to Singapore and Thailand had been quarantined after one was identified as a "probable" SARS sufferer.
Singapore General Hospital, where 19 people, including staff, patients and visitors, have caught SARS in a week, fears the virus could have spread to other wards.
Nine people have died of 133 confirmed cases in the tiny city state -- a rate of 6.7 percent, above the global average of about 4 percent. It has the world's fourth-highest number of cases.
"We are facing an unprecedented situation. We are dealing with a serious, unseen threat," Singapore's minister of manpower, Lee Boon Yang, said on Thursday.
He was speaking as governments around the world tightened their defenses against SARS. Singapore has deployed surveillance cameras and the US has broadened its definition of who is at risk.
Singapore General Hospital Medical Board chairman Tay Boon Keng listed the elderly Chinese man as a SARS "super spreader," and said he "fell through a crack" after being transferred from a hospital that handles SARS victims exclusively.
"There is concern that the virus could have spread to other wards," said a spokeswoman.
Of the 133 cases so far recorded in Singapore, nine people have died in less than a month and 77 have recovered.
As authorities rang former hospital patients trying to trace anyone exposed to the super spreader, authorities were taking drastic steps.
Security officers fanned out across town to enforce quarantine orders that affect 490 residents, mounting Internet-linked "Web cams" in homes and threatening to slap electronic wrist tags on offenders.
The disease has already delivered a heavy economic blow across Asia, hitting hotels, airlines, bars and restaurants, taxi companies, cruise tours and other tourist services.
The 26-year-old cruise ship crew member, an Indian national, was only the fourth person Malaysia has discovered to be suffering from SARS, although 27 people are in hospital awaiting test results.
She was taken to hospital on Monday and was in "stable condition and recovering," Ismail Merican, deputy director-general of health, told a news conference.
"Thirteen crew members of the ship have been quarantined on the ship at Port Klang," he said.
He did not say how many passengers had been on board or why none had been quarantined.
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