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.