Doctor dies of SARS

news.com.au April 08, 2003

TWO more Singaporeans, including a doctor, have died of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), bringing total deaths from the disease in that country to eight as officials contemplated more contingency measures. Half the 113 cases of SARS now recorded in Singapore are health workers - including six nurses whose infections were confirmed today - underscoring the dangers faced by hospital staff battling the disease worldwide.

Dr Ong Hok Su was the first medical staffer to die of SARS here and Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang paid tribute to the physician, who died of multiple organ failure with pneumonia, and other hospital workers fighting the scourge.

"We owe a debt of gratitude to all our (medical) staff for meeting this call of duty," Lim told a news conference.

The other fatality today was the mother of one of the island's first known cases of SARS, which began in southern China last November but was recognised as an international health crisis only last month.