WHO issues travel alert for Hong Kong, South China

The World Health Organisation (WHO) today issued a warning against travelling to Hong Kong and the southern Chinese province of Guangdong because of mounting cases of a killer mystery pneumonia.

In its first such travel warning in years, the United Nations body said it was alarmed that a number of visitors to the areas had caught the disease and then taken it home with them.

Hong Kong and Guangdong account for most of the more than 70 deaths and over 2000 cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) worldwide since the mysterious disease first triggered an international health alarm last month.

The WHO said that it was also concerned that in Hong Kong there was evidence that environmental factors were involved in the spread of the disease, in addition to the previously suspected close personal contact.

"We have decided to make a recommendation that people planning to travel to Hong Kong and Guangdong consider postponing," said David Heymann, WHO head of communicable diseases.

"This is the first time in recent years we have recommended that people avoid an area," he added.

In Hong Kong, where a high percentage of victims of the virus come from a single apartment complex, Heymann said that the environment - possibly the water or the sewage system - appeared to have played a role in transmission.

"We have found transmission there not just through close contact, there is something in the environment," he told a news conference.

Health authorities feel confident that they have identified the new virus, which is believed to have begun in Guangdong in November and has since been spread around the world by air travellers.

But they have still not found a cure to a disease that has caused panic in southeast Asia and already led to many travellers cancelling plans to visit affected areas.

The WHO has reported confirmed Sars cases in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Canada, the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Britain, France, Ireland and Italy.

Symptoms of the disease include breathing difficulties, high fever and chills.

- REUTERS