- (AFP) -- The death toll from a respiratory virus causing
a global health scare hit 100, as more deaths from the mystery disease
were reported in China, Singapore and Hong Kong.
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- China and Singapore each revealed two more deaths from
the virus on Monday while Hong Kong reported one, taking the global death
toll to exactly 100: 53 in China, 23 in Hong Kong, nine in Canada, eight
in Singapore, four in Vietnam, two in Thailand and one in Malaysia.
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- Nearly 2,800 suspected cases of Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome (SARS) have been detected around the world with China (1,268 cases)
and neighboring Hong Kong (883) the hardest hit.
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- As SARS claimed five more lives in Asia, the first confirmed
case was reported in Portugal and a fifth suspected case was detected in
Britain.
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- Vietnam reported five more cases of the disease on Monday,
dealing a setback to its efforts to contain the outbreak of the pneumonia-like
respiratory virus.
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- China, meanwhile, came under renewed fire for failing
to promptly report the initial cases of the illness to the UN's World Health
Organization (WHO), and top US health officials were to appear before the
US Congress on Monday to brief lawmakers on the spread of the disease in
North America.
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- Health officials in the United States have reported 115
possible cases of SARS and Canada has counted 217, including the nine deaths.
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- In China, where the first cases of SARS appeared in the
southern province of Guangdong in November, the health ministry reported
two more deaths on Monday and another 21 cases, bringing the total of cases
countrywide to 1,268.
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- In Hong Kong, where schools have been shut and hundreds
quarantined, the health authorities reported the death of a 78-year-old
woman from SARS and an additional 41 new cases of the disease.
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- A spokeswoman for the Hospital Authority said Hong Kong's
hospitals were prepared to handle up to 3,000 SARS patients in a worst-case
scenario.
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- In Singapore, the ministry of health said two more people,
a doctor and the mother of one of the original SARS cases in Singapore,
had died on Monday.
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- Six additional cases, all of them nurses, were reported
Monday, bringing to 112 the total number of SARS cases in Singapore.
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- In Vietnam, where at least 65 people have been infected
with SARS and four have died, health officials said they were "deeply
worried" by the discovery of five new cases over the weekend.
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- Vietnam had been lauded by the WHO last week for its
efforts to contain the spread of SARS but the new cases cast doubt on how
effective the efforts have been.
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- "We are deeply worried about the fact that more
and more new cases of SARS have been found. It is very likely than some
others will show up," said Le Dang Ha of the institute of tropical
diseases at Hanoi's Bach Mai hospital.
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- WHO director general Gro Harlem Brundtland publicly criticised
China, meanwhile, for its handling of the initial outbreak of SARS.
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- Speaking in New Delhi on Monday, Brundtland said China
should have sought the help of experts to stem the outbreak of SARS more
quickly.
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- "If you are asking if WHO had been given an opportunity
... to enter Guangdong and be able help the authorities there in dealing
with the outbreak in the region, yes that would have been helpful,"
she said.
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- "It should have happened earlier in my opinion,"
she said, adding that "we now have good cooperation with Guangdong
and with China on this issue."
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- SARS is believed to have begun in Guangdong province
in November, spread to Hong Kong in February and from there around the
world through airline travel.
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- A four-member WHO team of epidemiologists and disease
specialists is presently investigating the source of the original outbreak
in Guangdong.
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- They broke up into small groups Monday with two experts
meeting with Chinese animal disease and health officials and two others
heading to hospitals.
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- The WHO has advised against non-essential travel to Hong
Kong and Guangdong and numerous countries have issued similar travel advisories
to their citizens, dealing a devastating blow to the tourism industry in
the region.
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- The Hong Kong Aviation Authority said international airlines
cancelled 120 flights or 24 percent of total services in and out of Hong
Kong International Airport on Monday.
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