SE Asia to upgrade regional coordination to combat SARS
SE Asia to upgrade regional coordination to combat SARS
Agence France-Presse, Manila
An upcoming emergency Southeast Asian summit on the SARS outbreak would result in closer regional coordination to curb the killer disease, Philippines President Gloria Arroyo said on Monday.
Arroyo will be among leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to attend the April 29 summit in Bangkok to discuss Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), her spokesman Ignacio Bunye told a news conference.
"I'm sure this conference of the leaders will be able to really highlight what needs to be done, and be able to come up with a closer coordination to fight SARS," Bunye said.
"SARS is a worldwide problem and this is something that we have to address together."
Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri is also scheduled to attend the summit, although currently she is on a foreign trip to Eastern Europe.
Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjoro- Jakti and Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi will accompany the President during the summit.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The Philippines on Monday reported its first probable SARS death.
A 46-year-old nursing assistant who died a week ago was probably the first fatality of the deadly SARS in the Philippines, the government said on Monday.
The woman died at a Manila hospital on April 14 -- 11 days after her return here from Canada where she worked at an old people's home in Toronto, Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit told a news conference.
Four other people who were in contact with the victim had also developed fever and were put on quarantine, said Chito Navarro of the health department's SARS task force.
Other people who were in contact with the deceased were warned to stay home where they are being monitored by the health department, he added.
The dead nursing aide is believed to have contracted SARS from her room mate's mother in Canada, Dayrit said.
A second probable SARS case, a 64-year-old foreigner and frequent traveler to Hong Kong, had recovered and was discharged from hospital in Manila.
Navarro said that two Filipinos -- a domestic worker in Hong Kong and a doctor in Canada -- also died of SARS abroad.
More than 210 people have died of SARS so far worldwide, and more than 4,000 people are confirmed or suspected to have been infected by the disease in about 30 countries.
The vast majority of cases have been in China and Hong Kong. The former British colony has seen an alarming surge in deaths over the past week.
Despite the first probable SARS death in the Philippines, Dayrit said the government was not imposing any travel ban to and from SARS-affected countries, saying this would give people "a false sense of security".
Manila however is telling citizens to postpone "non-essential travel" to these countries, he said.