The World Health Organization (WHO) said China, epicenter of a flu-like virus that has killed about 160 people worldwide, had failed to report all its cases and the capital, Beijing, could have five times the official number.
The virus, which is new to science and has no known cure, has been carried by air travellers to around 22 countries in the past six weeks, infecting over 3,400 people.
Hong Kong, the second most affected area after China, reported five more deaths from the virus yesterday.
"Indeed there have been cases of SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome] -- there is no question about that -- that have also not been reported officially," German WHO virologist Wolfgang Preiser said after a visit to a military hospital in Beijing.
"The military seems to have its own reporting system which does not link in presently with the municipal one," he told a news conference yesterday.
WHO officials called for full disclosure from the country where SARS first appeared in November and which has been criticized widely for not sharing information with the rest of the world soon enough.
Officials were asked how many cases Beijing really had. "I would guess the range would be between 100 and 200," WHO official Alan Schnur replied. Only 37 cases have been officially reported in Beijing.
A team of WHO virologists and epidemiologists were allowed to visit two military hospitals in Beijing -- days after asking for permission -- as the government responded to pressure.
SARS has killed at least 65 people and infected 1,445 in mainland China -- nearly half of the world's cases -- since it first surfaced in the southern province of Guangdong.
In a sign some progress was being made in the fight against the illness, Singapore said it hopes to have a diagnostic test ready in a week following 12 deaths from SARS in the tiny island nation in less than a month.
But scientists in Hong Kong said they may have detected a more virulent form of the virus in the city where the disease has killed 61 people and infected 1,268.
Key data to help explain SARS may emerge from China in three to four weeks, due to the new openness of officials, said Dr David Heymann, head of the WHO's contagious diseases unit.
"What's the future of this disease?" he said in New York. "We won't know until we see what's going on in China."
Scientists have been working feverishly on diagnostic tests for SARS, after mapping the genetic sequence of the virus.
The state-run Genome Institute of Singapore said its new test would take three hours and may be sensitive enough to detect the virus in its early stages.
Also See Stories:
Fear of SARS cited for deserted trade fair in Guangzhou
SARS damage not irreparable
The US Department of State yesterday criticized Beijing over its misrepresentation of the US’ “one China” policy in the latest diplomatic salvo between the two countries over a bid by Taiwan to regain its observer status at the World Health Assembly, the decisionmaking body of the WHO. “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] continues to publicly misrepresent U.S. policy,” Department of State spokesman Ned Price wrote on Twitter. “The United States does not subscribe to the PRC’s ‘one China principle’ — we remain committed to our longstanding, bipartisan one China policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, Three Joint Communiques, and
FATES LINKED: The US president said that sanctions on Russia over Ukraine must exact a ‘long-term price,’ because otherwise ‘what signal does that send to China?’ US President Joe Biden yesterday vowed that US forces would defend Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese attack in his strongest statement to date on the issue. Beijing is already “flirting with danger,” Biden said following talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, in which the pair agreed to monitor Chinese naval activity and joint Chinese-Russian exercises. Asked if Washington was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan, he replied: “Yes.” “That’s the commitment we made,” Biden said. “We agreed with the ‘one China’ policy, we signed on to it ... but the idea that it can be
INFORMATION LEAKED: Documents from Xinjiang purportedly showed top leaders in Beijing calling for a forceful crackdown and even orders to shoot to kill Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday held a videoconference with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet as she visited Xinjiang during a mission overshadowed by fresh allegations of Uighur abuses and fears she is being used as a public relations tool. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been accused of detaining more than 1 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the region as part of a years-long crackdown the US and lawmakers in other Western nations have labeled a “genocide.” China denies the allegations. Bachelet was expected to visit the cities of Urumqi and Kashgar on a six-day tour. The US
SUBTLE? While Biden said the US policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ on Taiwan had not changed, the group targeted China and Russia without naming them Leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the US yesterday warned against attempts to “change the status quo by force,” as concerns grow about whether China could invade Taiwan. The issue of Taiwan loomed over a leadership meeting in Tokyo of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) nations — the US, Japan, Australia and India — who stressed their determination to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region in the face of an increasingly assertive China, although Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the group was not targeting any one country. The four leaders said in a joint statement issued after their talks
RSS