Asia seeks airport screening as Sars death toll climbs

12.00pm

Asian health ministers called today for checks on all departing passengers at airports to halt the spread of SARS while a British medical expert said the disease may be more deadly but less contagious than first feared.

Rising death tolls in Asia and Canada provided a sombre backdrop to a meeting in Malaysia of ministers from China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and 10 Southeast Asian states.

"It's mandatory for all countries to undertake pre-departure screening," Malaysian Health Minister Chua Jui Meng told a news conference, referring to a ministerial declaration.

"All SARS suspects, as well as probable cases, will not be allowed to travel, especially beyond their borders," Chua said, summarising recommendations due before a SARS meeting of Asian heads of government in Bangkok on Tuesday.

At the same time, a World Health Organisation official said it may take years to find a vaccine for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, the respiratory virus that has killed at least 289 people and infected 5,000 in more than 20 countries since it emerged in southern China late last year.

Canada has been hard hit by SARS with the only deaths outside Asia, all 20 in the Toronto area. The city has announced a multilingual advertising campaign to try to restore its reputation, dealt a major economic blow by the virus and a World Health Organisation warning to travellers to stay away.

President Bush spoke on Saturday with Chinese President Hu Jintao, the White House said.

"The president ... expressed condolences to the families of SARS victims and offered US assistance should it be needed," said White House spokeswoman Mercy Viana.

Mortality higher

Professor Roy Anderson, an authority on infectious diseases at Imperial College London, said a study of some 1,400 SARS victims in Hong Kong suggested the virus was more difficult to pass on than first feared, but is also more deadly.

"This is not a highly transmissible infection," Anderson told BBC radio. "It's been effectively contained in most of the developed countries in the world with a very limited number of cases, Britain being a good example."

But Anderson also found that the mortality rate maybe as high as 10 per cent, considerably worse than the six per cent rate maintained by World Health Organisation.

"If one looks carefully at the WHO figures on mortality and recovery rates, it is running, unfortunately, at 10 per cent, Anderson said.

WHO official Mark Salter told reporters the search for an effective vaccine would take time.

"I think we are looking at two years, three years, maybe, before a vaccine," he said, adding that WHO planned to pull together world vaccine experts next week to speed things up.

Asia has borne the brunt of SARS, battering economies and forcing governments to cut growth forecasts as retailers, airlines and tourist businesses are hit.

Singapore has so far suffered most among Southeast Asian nations, with 18 deaths, followed by Vietnam with five, and then Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, with two each.

The disease has caused widespread alarm in mainland China and Hong Kong. China recorded seven new deaths, taking the toll reported to 122 out of about 3,000 cases, while Hong Kong raised its fatality count by six to 121, with 1,527 cases.

In Beijing, people were trying to avoid crowds, some neighbourhoods were quarantined and all elementary schools remained were closed.

In Hong Kong, the media reported on Saturday a 28-year-old man was the youngest victim so far.

Toronto seethes

Canada has at least 341 probable SARS cases and while the death toll rose to 20 from 19 on Saturday, health officials are seething at the warning this week advising against travel to Toronto by the WHO. The officials maintain the disease is contained to the original cluster of cases and has not spread to the broader community, although it continues to infect health workers.

Toronto, Canada's financial and cultural capital, launched an international advertising campaign featuring Mayor Mel Lastman, which will be seen around the world this weekend.

The SARS outbreak is a public relations disaster for Toronto and politicians have come under heavy criticism for their handling of the crisis. Prime Minister Jean Chretien was blasted for spending the height of the crisis on holiday in the Caribbean.

Most criticism has been directed at Lastman who seemed in television appearances not to know what the WHO was or how many SARS cases there were in his city.

Singapore crackdown

Singapore said on Saturday a 63-year-old man had died of SARS, bringing its death toll to 18. The city state also reported its youngest victim yet, an 18-month-old girl.

The city state has implemented some of the world's harshest measures to deal with the illness, quarantining nearly 2,800 people and threatening them with hefty fines or six months in jail if they leave their homes.

"Let's take this thing seriously. If you don't behave you are imperiling your neighbors, yourself, your country and the economy," said Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's senior minister.

Lee, in remarks published on Saturday, said his wife had been quarantined after being treated in hospital next to a patient who was later diagnosed with SARS and had since died.