SARS: S-E Asia joins hands to fight

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and leaders of 10 South-East Asian nations pledged closer cooperation on Tuesday in the fight to contain the SARS virus as a leading WHO official declared that public fears about the disease had become excessive. A declaration released at the end of the leaders’ one-day summit here included initiatives for improved exchanges of information, joint research projects and coordinated immigration and customs controls. The declaration and the comments by WHO’s chief of communicable diseases, David Heymann, appeared aimed at easing the sense of panic that has gripped East Asia as the disease has spread.

Also on Tuesday, the WHO rescinded a warning it issued a week ago against non-essential travel to Toronto, where SARS arrived from Hong Kong in late February and has killed 21 people. However, in Asia, there was a raft of disturbing news about the spread of the disease, including 152 confirmed new cases reported in Beijing and South Korea’s first presumed case.

11 more people die in China

BEIJING: China said on Wednesday that 11 more people had died from SARS and another 166 were infected, taking the death toll to 159 and the number of cases to 3,460. The Health Ministry said 9 of the new deaths were in Beijing and the city accounted for 101 of the latest cases. The Ministry said the latest figures took the Beijing death toll to 75, more than any other area of the country, including the southern province of Guangdong where SARS first appeared in November. (Reuters)

Meanwhile, Hong Kong authorities were forced to despatch a chartered aircraft to Taiwan to bring a group of 33 tourists back home two days after they all had been placed in quarantine because a six-year-old girl travelling with the group had developed a fever. ‘‘Although SARS is certainly deadly under certain conditions, the fear of SARS is worse than the disease itself,’’ Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra said after the Bangkok summit.

Heymann described the virus as one spread only through close personal contact with someone who has the disease. Wen said there had been no attempt by ASEAN leaders to force an apology from Beijing because of its initial attempts to cover up the extent of the country’s SARS problems — a move that allowed the virus to spread unchecked for weeks. However, he admitted there had been major shortcomings on the part of the government. (LAT-WP)