Finn's death raises China SARS count to 52

<a href=www.upi.com>UPI From the Science & Technology Desk Published 4/6/2003 9:27 AM View printer-friendly version

The death Sunday of a Finnish man from severe acute respiratory syndrome capped a series of regional developments on the mysterious disease.

Pekka Aro, 53, worked in the Beijing office of the International Labor Organization. He died from SARS at 1:25 a.m. Sunday, Dr. Guo Jiyong, deputy director general of the Beijing Municipal Health Department, said at a news conference.

Aro showed symptoms of the disease after arriving in Beijing from Bangkok, Thailand, on March 23, officials said. He was hospitalized April 2 in Beijing's Ditan Hospital, where he died Sunday.

Aro is the first foreigner to die from the flu-like illness in china. Officials in Beijing said he most likely was infected overseas.

His death brings the number of people who have died from the disease in mainland China to 52. On Saturday, China's Ministry of Health said there were 1,247 cases of the disease, of whom 51 had died.

The disease, which has mainly affected China's Guangdong province and adjacent Hong Kong, has spread to other parts of the world, which are struggling to cope with the outbreak that has killed at least 89 people thus far.

In Pakistan Sunday, the government directed all airports to screen incoming airline passengers for SARS.

In Japan, the government said it would ask local bodies to draw up plans to deal with a potential outbreak.

"Given so many patients in surrounding countries, we will have to prepare ourselves" for an outbreak of SARS, Health Minister Chikara Sakaguchi told a meeting of the Japanese Association of Medical Sciences.

Last Thursday, Japan designated SARS as an infectious disease, and tightened quarantine inspections at airports and issued travel warnings. It has reported three probable cases of the disease, and 19 suspected cases.