Reuters Health Last Updated: 2003-04-07 17:00:33 -0400 (Reuters Health)

TORONTO (Reuters) - The mysterious pneumonia-like SARS virus has claimed its 10th Canadian victim, health officials said on Monday, adding that another case is being investigated as a possible SARS death.

Health officials in Ontario said the number of people with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) had risen to 188, with 88 probable and 100 suspect cases.

As of Sunday, there were reports of 217 probable or suspect SARS cases across Canada.

The illness has killed about 100 people worldwide and infected more than 2,600 since it emerged in southern China in November. Canada has the third-highest number of cases in the world after China and Hong Kong, and the bulk of them are around Toronto, which has a large Chinese immigrant population.

Thousands of people have been quarantined in Ontario to prevent the spread of the virus.

Outside Ontario, cases have been reported in British Columbia, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Prince Edward Island.

SARS symptoms include high fever, chills and breathing difficulties, and the disease has a mortality rate of about 4 percent, roughly the same as measles. By comparison, hundreds of thousands can die in a year from various strains of influenza, and malaria kills about 1 million a year, mostly children.

Reuters Health Last Updated: 2003-04-07 10:00:30 -0400 (Reuters Health)

MADRID (Reuters) - The World Health Organization's infectious diseases chief said a mystery respiratory virus that has killed more than 80 people should be identified within weeks but he feared it might be carried by people without symptoms.

WHO's David Heymann was asked in an interview with Spain's El Pais daily how long it would take to identify the source of the illness, which has spread through Asia and beyond, killing more than 80 people and infecting more than 2,400.

"Given the speed with which the 11 laboratories we have coordinated are making progress, not long. Not long could be weeks or months, but I think it will be weeks."

He said the next stage was to develop a test for the disease and find out if there were carriers of the pneumonia-like virus, called severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), who were not showing symptoms.

"If there are people who have the virus and don't show symptoms, we are lost, because that would mean it had spread throughout the world, as it is easily contracted," Heymann was quoted as saying.

"That was how AIDS was transmitted before it was discovered. We still don't know if this is the case, that's why we need a test," he added.

He also said finding a treatment and vaccine would take "a long time."

The SARS outbreak started in southern China late last year before showing up in Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Canada, Germany and elsewhere in recent weeks.

Reuters Health Last Updated: 2003-04-07 13:00:26 -0400 (Reuters Health) By Jason Szep

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Two more people died of atypical pneumonia on Monday, Singapore said, as Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong canceled a trip to SARS-hit China and the deadly virus spread to a fifth Singapore hospital.

Days after showing some success in subduing the virus that has killed 100 people worldwide and infected more than 2,600, Singapore said six more nurses had been struck by the illness at three different hospitals.

The infections bring Singapore's total confirmed SARS cases to 112 -- the world's fourth-highest -- and raise concerns over how quickly the disease is spreading despite aggressive attempts to stop it.

As the country counted its eighth death from the disease, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong told Singaporeans to learn to live with the virus, because it would not disappear soon.

"What we are saying is this is not the end of the world, there's life. With terrorism, with the Iraqi war, with SARS, we are going to live as near normal a life as possible," he said.

The illness has dire consequences for Singapore's US$88 billion economy, which barely escaped a second recession in as many years last year and was already hammered as exports fall during the war in Iraq.

Orchard Road, a main shopping district, is quieter than usual and taxi drivers complain of dwindling fares as residents stay home. An industry body said some retailers reported sales down as much as 75 percent last weekend.

Goh said the government would revise down its forecast of 2 to 5 percent economic growth this year, citing the blow from SARS. Economists have already done that, slashing forecasts for growth by one percentage point, on average, according to a Reuters poll.

"It is really across the board," said Jannie Tay, president of the Singapore Retailers Association, referring to the effect of the disease on retailers.

ISOLATION POLICY HIT

Singapore's SARS infection rate had slowed dramatically last week. Just five new cases of the disease were confirmed over the weekend, and only one on Friday.

But new infections on Monday stoked fears of a possible crack in its strategy to contain the illness.

Singapore had contained SARS to one hospital, Tan Tock, until last week when it reached National University Hospital and then on Saturday hit KK, a women's hospital.

On Sunday a doctor at Singapore General, the nation's biggest hospital, came down with it, and on Monday SARS reached another center, Changi General Hospital, with two new cases.

Headlines of a confirmed SARS case at Singapore General, the nation's busiest hospital, triggered a wave of panicked callers. Phone lines at the hospital went down briefly as they swamped the switchboard, asking if it was safe. Visitors to the hospital had their temperature taken before they were allowed in.

More than a dozen nurses at the hospital have developed a fever -- a key symptom of the illness. Around 80 patients and 91 staff were transferred in ambulances to Tan Tock.

The disease also took a diplomatic toll as Goh canceled a visit to China to meet the country's new leadership, citing the outbreak of SARS, which has killed at least 53 people on the mainland, where it is thought to have originated in November.

Reuters Health Last Updated: 2003-04-07 15:02:56 -0400 (Reuters Health) By Jayashree Lengade

BOMBAY (Reuters) - Indian health authorities reported the first suspected case of the deadly SARS virus in the country on Monday, saying a U.S. citizen had taken ill after traveling to Bombay from China, where the disease originated.

"She's at a stage that we're suspecting that she may be infected with the virus," Dr. Subhash Salunkhe, director general for health services for the western state of Maharashtra, told Reuters in Bombay.

"It's not yet confirmed, we're still conducting tests. She's traveled and come from China, Thailand and Vietnam, all high risk countries for SARS."

He said the patient was admitted to the Kasturba Hospital on Monday evening and a team of doctors from the National Institute of Virology at the nearby city of Pune were on their way to Bombay to conduct more tests.

Salunkhe declined to give further details but added that the patient was stable.

"She's been kept in isolation now and she had come (in) with symptoms of fever and a sore throat," said a doctor treating the patient at the specialized hospital in central Bombay.

Symptoms of the pneumonia-like SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) include fever, coughing and breathing difficulties. The mortality rate is about three to four percent.

India is on high alert to prevent entry of the virus that has swept large parts of Asia and killed 100 people worldwide and infected more than 2,600.

Airport authorities have been screening passengers coming into the country and hospitals have been identified in major cities where travelers showing symptoms of the flu-like disease will be kept under observation.

Reuters Health Last Updated: 2003-04-07 15:03:56 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The answer to the deadly SARS virus sweeping the world may be a simple necktie, according to a college professor in Cleveland, Ohio.

John Haaga designed the $40 tie and similar scarves for women with silk on the outside and a special filter inside for use in a medical scare or terror attack.

Haaga, professor of radiology at University Hospitals of Cleveland, said he got the idea when he saw images on television of a man covering his face with a tie after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center in New York.

Sales of the ties and scarves have risen to about 50 a day on the manufacturer's Web site (http:/www.fbsclothing.com/) because of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which has killed at least 90 people worldwide.

Haaga told Reuters he plans to introduce new designs and move manufacturing to the United States from Guangdong province in China, which happens to be the epicenter of the SARS outbreak.

The ties provide similar protection to a commonly used face mask known as an N95 respirator, which filters out particulates, he said.

But, for many, the main benefit may be psychological.

"When they are wearing a piece of clothing that can provide some temporary protection, it gives peace of mind," Haaga said.