<a href=www.ctnow.com>CTNOW 7:38 AM EST,April 2, 2003 By The Associated Press

The disease called severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, continues to make headlines. Here are answers to some concens about it. Q. What are the symptoms? A. It usually begins with a fever of more than 100.4 F., sometimes with chills and headache and body aches. After two to seven days, patients may develop a cough. Other symptoms can include shortness of breath, difficulty in breathing and pneumonia. Q. Who's most at risk of getting SARS? A. Travelers to or residents of certain parts of Asia, and people who've had direct close contact with an infected person, like health care workers and those sharing a household with a SARS patient. Apart from that, there's no sign of it spreading in communities in the United States at the moment, federal authorities say. Q. What should I do if I think I have SARS? A. If you have a fever of more than 100.4 F. and develop a cough or difficulty breathing, contact a health care provider. Explain any recent travel to regions where SARS has been reported and whether you were in close contact with someone who had these symptoms. Q. How does SARS spread? A. The germ apparently travels on the tiny droplets of fluid that an infected person spews out when coughing or sneezing. Experts say they're concerned about the possibility that it might also travel more broadly through the air. Q. What can I do to avoid SARS? A. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends postponing non-essential trips to mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Hanoi, Vietnam. While some SARS cases have been reported in Canada, there's no sign of widespread community spread, so CDC isn't advising against travel to or from there. Q. Can I catch the germ from an infected passenger in an airplane? A. There have been a few reports suggesting that. The World Health Organization says that doesn't necessarily mean the germ spreads through recirculated air, however. To reduce the international spread of SARS, WHO is urging officials to screen international airline passengers departing from Toronto, Singapore, Hanoi and several Chinese cities for possible SARS and ask those who appear sick to delay their trip until they feel better. Q. Is there a cure? A. None has been identified yet. Q. What caused those clusters of cases in the Hong Kong hotel and apartment building? A. It's not yet clear how the germ was transmitted in those cases. Scientists believe SARS is caused by a type of coronavirus, the virus family that causes the common cold. Other coronaviruses can survive up to three hours outside the body. So it's possible that if an infected person coughed droplets onto a door handle or some other object that a second person later touched, that second person might become infected.

• __ On the Web: WHO information: www.who.int/csr/sars/en/ CDC information: www.cdc.gov/ncidod/SARS

<a href=www.kron4.com>KRON4

Toronto-AP -- The mysterious illness that has been spreading around the world has claimed two more lives in Canada. The flu-like illness, called severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, has killed two additional people in Toronto. That brings to six the number who've died from the illness in Canada -- all in Toronto.

The illness was brought to Canada by air travelers from Asia. Its initial symptoms include fever, dry cough and shortness of breath.

SARS has killed more than 60 people worldwide and sickened more than 16-hundred.

International arrivals at Toronto's airport are getting information on the illness, but health officials say it's not necessary to interview them all.

In Ontario, a health emergency has been declared. Access to hospitals has been restricted. People who could be infected have been asked to stay home for ten days.

<a href=www.kron4.com>KRON4 Posted: April 1, 2003 at 11:16 p.m. Updated: April 1, 2003 at 12:32 p.m.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- An American Airlines flight from Tokyo was quarantined on the tarmac Tuesday at San Jose's airport after five people on board complained of symptoms like those reported from the mysterious flu-like illness spreading through Asia, health officials said.

Two passengers and two crew members, plus a fifth unidentified person, complained of symptoms similar to those found in severe acute respiratory syndrome -- which has afflicted hundreds in Hong Kong and killed at least 64 people worldwide.

It was not immediately clear when the people became ill, only that they reported to the crew during the flight that they "think they may have SARS," said Joy Alexiou, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County Public Health Department.

Alexiou added that "we're pretty sure four of the five tranferred from Hong Kong to Tokyo."

Flight 128 from Tokyo to Mineta San Jose International Airport stopped on the tarmac short of the gate mid-morning Tuesday, and ambulances lined up near the plane as the 125 passengers and 14 crew members waited on board after the nine-hour flight.

American Airlines notified the airport that help was needed after "the captain was informed of a passenger needing medical assistance," said Todd Burke, a spokesman for the airline.

More than 1,600 cases of the illness have been reported so far worldwide. Officials say it's unclear whether exposure on a flight is sufficient to infect people.

Alexiou said the passengers and crew members who feel sick will be transported to a hospital for chest X-rays and to have their travel history checked before they are classified as suspected cases of SARS.

"This thing seems to spread a little easier than first anticipated, so we want to take every precaution," Alexiou said.

Others on the plane will be given medical advice and allowed to depart -- but told to immediately contact a doctor if they develop any symptoms, she said.

Posted on Tue, Apr. 01, 2003 By Michael Dorgan Knight Ridder Newspapers

BEIJING - Faced with mounting criticism of China's sluggish response to a deadly new respiratory virus, a government spokesman on Tuesday denied a cover-up and lashed out at critics.

"We have nothing to hide," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jiancho said at a press conference where he was peppered with questions about the epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which began in southern China in November and has spread to more than a dozen countries, including the United States.

"We have made tremendous efforts to control the disease," Liu said.

Liu's comments came a day after the Asian Wall Street Journal published an editorial calling for other countries to cut all travel links to China until it more aggressively combats the epidemic, which has severely sickened 1,804 people worldwide, killing 62.

"Given Beijing's refusal to take even elementary public health measures, a difficult decision must be made," the editorial said. "The most effective way to halt the spread of the disease would be for other countries to suspend all travel links with China until Beijing has implemented a public health campaign."

It's unlikely that countries will cut off travel to China. But several countries, including the United States, have issued warnings about travel to China and other Asian destinations hard hit by the epidemic.

On Tuesday, an American Airlines flight from Tokyo was quarantined at San Jose, California's Mineta airport after five people complained of SARS-like symptoms.

Japan has no confirmed SARS cases.

Liu, the Chinese government spokesman, said travel warnings were unnecessary. He said foreign tourists and business travelers were "safe in China" because "the disease is well under control."

As Liu defended China's response to the new disease, the first documented cases of which appeared in China's southern Guangdong Province, a team of World Health Organization experts that had been dispatched to Beijing twiddled their thumbs awaiting crucial data and clearances from the Chinese government.

"I can't explain the slowness right now for more up-to-date surveillance numbers," team-member Dr. Robert Breiman, an infectious disease specialist, said in an interview.

Breiman and four other WHO experts arrived in Beijing more than a week ago.

Yet he said Tuesday evening that Chinese officials had still not provided them any data on cases that have occurred in Guangdong over the past month.

Equally frustrating to Breiman and his colleagues, Chinese officials still had not approved an urgent request made Friday to allow team members to travel to Guangdong to conduct what they describe as essential on-site research into the origin and transmission of the virus.

Experts believe the virus belongs to the coronavirus family, which typically attacks animals but not humans. But much more must be known about the new strain, they say, before it can be effectively contained.

China's official silence prevailed until last Wednesday, when the government disclosed that there had been nearly 800 cases in Guangdong, including 31 deaths, as of "late February." The government also disclosed 10 cases, including three deaths, in Beijing.

Since the arrival of the WHO team in Beijing early last week, the number of SARS cases in Hong Kong, a so-called special administrative region of China, has exploded to more than 600, causing 15 deaths and near panic.

All Hong Kong schools have closed, and more than 2,000 people are in quarantine. Tourists have fled, flights have been canceled and hotel occupancies have plunged - raising fears of dire economic consequences.

Many suspect that China hoped to avoid such economic consequences by imposing a virtual news blackout on the epidemic and withholding data from the global coalition of health groups combating the outbreak.

No data on the epidemic in China was released until Feb. 10, when Guangdong officials disclosed 305 cases of SARS, including five deaths.

On Friday, the WHO team called a press conference to announce that their negotiations had produced a breakthrough and that Chinese officials had agreed to provide timely data on all cases in China.

Late Tuesday, the team was still waiting.

"Hopefully, they are not hiding (data) but having trouble reconciling numbers from different sources," Breiman said.

He added that the Chinese government might be doing itself a disservice by not being more forthcoming. Chinese health workers appear to have done "some nice work" in containing the epidemic on Guangdong, he said, yet the absence of data arouses suspicions.

The Strait Times

SINGAPORE -- Singapore airport authorities said on Tuesday that nurses examining arriving passengers had intercepted at least seven suspected cases of a deadly flu-like illness in less than 24 hours.

Nurses are expected to screen about 35 flights a day arriving from places the World Health Organization has identified as high risk areas, including Vietnam, Hongkong and China. -- AP

Seven nurses clad in yellow hospital gowns and surgical masks were the first to greet passengers on a flight from Beijing as soon as they stepped into the terminal from the boarding bridge, as airport officials gave reporters a glimpse at the new measures.

Nurses identified the seven suspected cases in the first 20 hours after the Health Ministry posted them at the main airport on Monday at 8 pm to try to halt the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or Sars, said Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore spokesman Albert Tjoeng.

Singapore's Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang has said that the disease likely entered Singapore through the airport. 6th Index case

Singapore on Tuesday reported a sixth imported Sars case, including three new cases of infection, raising the Republic's reported cases to 95.

In a statement, the Ministry of Health said the latest index case involved a 56-year-old Chinese national who arrived from China's Fujian province near Guangdong on March 16 to visit her daughter.

'She became unwell on March 28 and was admitted to Tan Tong Seng Hospital as a suspect Sars case on March 29,' it said.

She has since been 'diagnosed as a Sars case,' it said, adding home quarantine orders are being issued.

All of Singapore's 92 reported cases of Sars can be traced back to five people who had traveled to Hongkong. Four people have died of Sars in Singapore.

Arriving passengers -- some wearing surgical masks of their own -- filed quickly past as the nurses asked them how they were feeling.

'If we suspect a case or think a person is not feeling well, we give them a mask and take them to hospital,' Mr Tjoeng said.

Nurses are expected to screen about 35 flights a day arriving from places the World Health Organization has identified as high risk areas, including Vietnam, Hongkong and China, according to the civil aviation authority.

Airport cleaners were seen disinfecting all railings and counters, a procedure that is repeated at least four times a day, Mr Tjoeng said.

Also on Tuesday, DBS Group, one of Southeast Asia's largest banks, suspended all travel to Sars-affected areas after an employee in Hongkong became infected with the illness.

Techno artist Moby cancelled a concert scheduled to take place in Singapore on Tuesday and a show in Hongkong, citing the outbreak. The annual Singapore Business Awards ceremony planned for Thursday was also postponed.

In Kuala Lumpur meanwhile, Malaysia's health authorities on announced the country's first suspected Sars cases, the official Bernama news agency reported.

Health ministry director general Mohamad Taha Arif was quoted as saying that eight people with suspected Sars had been admitted to hospital for tests. A 37-year-old woman has been in hospitalised in Johor, while the other seven cases were reported in and around Kuala Lumpur, he said. -- AP, AFP