New case of SARS virus found in Britain

<a href=www.news.scotsman.com>JAMES REYNOLDS ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT

A FIFTH suspected case of the deadly SARS virus was reported in the UK last night, as the death toll across the rest of the world rose above 90.

The new case, reported by health officials, concerns a man who returned to the UK from Taiwan on 29 March and was admitted to hospital in the east of England on 5 April.

It is the second probable case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome reported to the Health Protection Agency’s Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre in as many days.

All five cases were reported following an alert issued by the Health Protection Agency and the Department of Health on 14 March.

A joint statement issued by the Department of Health and the Health Protection Agency said of the fifth male case: "He did not have any symptoms on his flight back to England and there is no need for other passengers to be traced.

"Following admission to hospital, he has been treated in isolation as a precautionary measure and his condition is stable."

Three of the other probable cases who were being treated in various London hospitals have all now recovered and have been discharged from hospital.

The fourth case, who was reported on 5 April, is being treated in North Manchester General Hospital and is in a stable condition.

Worldwide, the toll from the fast-spreading flu-like illness rose to 98 deaths yesterday, as two more people died in Hong Kong.

The exact cause of the illness has not yet been identified, but symptoms include fever, aches, a dry cough and shortness of breath.

The Health Department has advised Britons not to travel to Hong Kong, which has seen more than 700 cases and up to 20 deaths, or Guangdong province, which accounts for at least 40 of China’s reported deaths.

The first case was recorded in November and since then more than 1,100 people in the province have fallen ill.

The figures are still rising across the world and the virus has infected 2,416 people in 18 countries, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

A team of WHO investigators has been in Guangdong since Thursday trying to find out how SARS spreads and why it kills.

Many of those sick in China are said to be otherwise healthy people in their 20s to 40s.

Eleven laboratories worldwide are trying to find its source and create a diagnostic test.

Antibiotics do not appear to be effective against the bug, although the WHO said infection-control methods were helping to contain its spread.

It was thought that close contact with an infected person was needed for the infectious agent to spread from one person to another.

A Finnish man who died in Beijing yesterday became China’s first foreign fatality from the disease.

Pekka Aro, 53, died at a Beijing hospital, but appeared to have SARS before he arrived in the Chinese capital on 23 March from Thailand, a Chinese official said.

Aro told doctors he believed he caught the disease on the flight from Bangkok, said Guo Jiyong, deputy director general of the Beijing Health Bureau. He said no-one who had contact with Aro in Beijing has shown symptoms.

A second foreigner - a Canadian - is hospitalised in Beijing with the virus, but no details about the patient’s identity or condition, or whether the person was a resident of Beijing, were released.

The quick announcement of Aro’s death was a striking change from the communist government’s earlier reluctance to release information about SARS. Foreign officials and ordinary Chinese have complained about delays.

The head of the WHO added to the criticism last night, saying China should have been more open in the early stages of the disease.

WHO director general Gro Harlem Bruntland said: "China took too long before they felt the need to be helped. We could have saved time by coming in earlier."