News.com.au March 31, 2003

TWO more people have died of a mystery flu-like illness in Hong Kong, health officials said.

Hong Kong has now suffered 15 deaths from severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and the global total has topped 60.

The Hong Kong health secretary, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, told a news conference a 79-year-old man who also had heart disease and a man in his 60s who did not receive early treatment for SARS were the latest victims.

Yeoh said Hong Kong officials were considering the establishment of quarantine centres. He did not say where they would be or how many people they might end up holding.

Hong Kong has now reported 610 cases of the disease, including an alarming jump of 92 cases at a single apartment complex where 213 people have been hospitalised.

News.com.au From correspondents in Hong Kong March 31, 2003

HONG KONG took drastic new measures today to combat a killer pneumonia as nearly 100 more cases were reported in the territory amid growing disruption to travel and business across Asia. The increasingly fraught battle to contain Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome came as the US authorities warned the virus could be more contagious than first thought and advised against travel to parts of Asia.

The mysterious illness has now infected more than 1600 people in 15 countries and killed at least 59 people.

It erupted in southern China, spread to Hong Kong and has been taken worldwide by airline passengers.

The Hong Kong authorities today isolated an entire housing block for 10 days in an attempt to control the epidemic after 213 people on the estate were found to be infected - a rise of 92 overnight.

<a href=news.com.au From correspondents in Manila, Philippines March 31, 2003

INTERNATIONAL health experts expect to identify within days the virus causing the mysterious, flu-like disease that is spreading fast in parts of Asia, although finding a specific treatment may take more time, a UN health official said.

"I think we can identify the causative agent in quite a short time period. We think probably within a few days, at most a few weeks," said Hitoshi Oshitani, the World Health Organisation coordinator for severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.

"But this doesn't mean we will find the specific treatment for this disease within the short time period," he told a news conference.

Researchers suspect the disease - which Oshitani called "the most significant outbreak that has been spread through air travel in history" - was caused by the paramyxovirus or the coronavirus.

Oshitani said the virus causing the new disease apparently came from an animal.