SARS more deadly than other respiratory diseases: Study

SARS more deadly than other respiratory diseases: Study

William Foreman, Associated Press, Beijing

World Health Organization (WHO) experts will go to a crowded
Chinese province where Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
is spreading fast. And, as the known global death toll approached
500, new research published on Wednesday suggested the illness is
much more deadly than many other respiratory diseases,
particularly for older patients.

Beijing police said dogs, cats and other pets of quarantined
people will be isolated or killed out of fear they might be
carriers.

The United States promised to work closer with China on SARS,
although a senior Chinese official was noncommittal about
providing American scientists with biomedical specimens from
patients.

At least 497 people have died around the world, with 11 new
fatalities in Hong Kong, five in China and two in Taiwan reported
on Wednesday.

More than 6,800 have been infected since the disease surfaced
in China's southern province of Guangdong in November.

New findings in Britain's Lancet medical journal show that
SARS is killing one in five patients hospitalized with the virus
in hard-hit Hong Kong, including 55 percent of infected patients
aged over 60. In younger patients, the death rate could be as low
as 6.8 percent.

"That's sadly still very high for a respiratory infection,"
said Roy Anderson, an epidemiologist at London's Imperial College
who headed the study. "In other common respiratory infections it
is much less than 1 percent in the vulnerable elderly."

The research - conducted with the University of Hong Kong and
Hong Kong health authorities - is the first major study of SARS
trends, but was based only on data from Hong Kong, where at least
204 people have died.

Scientists and agencies differ over what an average person's
chances worldwide are of dying of SARS. The U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention puts the overall death rate at 6.6
percent. WHO says it ranges from 6 percent to 10 percent.

In Hong Kong on Wednesday, masked health workers and weeping
government officials attended the funeral of a nurse who was the
territory's first medical professional to die after treating SARS
patients. Lau Wing-kai, 38, died April 26 and was hailed as a
"people's hero."

Severe acute respiratory syndrome continues to hit China
despite mass quarantines, roadblocks, travel restrictions and
some school shutdowns. There has been some progress, though. The
number of new cases reported on Wednesday, 159, was below 200 for
the fourth consecutive day.

A WHO investigative team is to travel Thursday to the densely
populated northern province of Hebei, where the number of SARS
infections has doubled to 98 between April 30 and May 4.

Hebei province borders Beijing - which has been the worst
affected by the SARS epidemic.

Chinese authorities fear SARS has the potential to devastate
poor populations in the country's hinterlands.

"SARS prevention in vast rural areas is a key component of the
fight against the disease," Premier Wen Jiabao was quoted as
saying by the official Xinhua news agency. "It is vital to the
health of farmers, to rural economic and social development and
also to the overall success of the anti-SARS battle."

In Taiwan, authorities ordered the closing and disinfecting of
a big department store if a cashier with SARS-like symptoms is
diagnosed as a positive case.

In the Philippines, Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Sin ordered
priests to prevent "mass hysteria" over SARS. Last month, Sin
urged the faithful to receive communion wafers by hand instead
directly in the mouth, and discouraged people from the common
practice of kissing public religious statues.

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson
said Chinese Vice Premier and Health Minister Wu Yi agreed to
cooperate in training and lab development while more U.S. health
advisers would go to China.

Thompson said that in a telephone call Monday night, Wu was
noncommittal when asked if China would give U.S. experts
specimens from Chinese patients at various stages of infection.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention downgraded
its travel advisory against nonessential travel to Singapore to a
travel alert. It downgraded its travel advisory for Vietnam on
Monday.

A Singapore health official said the city-state will declare
its SARS outbreak under control if no more new cases are found in
the next 10 days.