The World Health Organization (WHO) has drastically revised its record of the number of SARS cases in Taiwan during this year's outbreak, after laboratory tests showed that many had been suffering other ailments.
The number of recorded cases fell from 682 to 346, and the number of Taiwanese killed by SARS fell to 37 from the earlier reported 84, according to the WHO Web site.
Taiwan revised the numbers it provided to the UN agency after laboratory tests showed many of the cases reported during the February-to-June outbreak were not SARS, the Center for Disease Control said yesterday.
During the outbreak, many people were listed as SARS patients and quarantined after they developed common SARS symptoms such as fever and lung infections, officials said.
But many had developed pneumonia caused by viruses other than SARS, and many of the deaths were elderly men and women with chronic illnesses who were misdiagnosed, officials at the center said.
SARS is believed to have originated in southern China. The highly contagious bug killed more than 800 people worldwide and infected some 8,400.
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