-Caveat Lector- http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HAN282222
19 Mar 2003 11:52 U.S. boy in Vietnam contracts mystery pnuemonia -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Christina Toh-Pantin HANOI, March 19 (Reuters) - An American schoolboy in southern Vietnam has contracted a fast-spreading pneumonia that has killed at least 14 people, but he was not known to have been exposed to anyone else infected, health officials said on Wednesday. A Vietnamese nurse and a French doctor have died from the virus in Hanoi, termed an atypical pneumonia, after treating a U.S. businessman who was hospitalised in Vietnam's capital city following trips to Shanghai and Hong Kong. The American businessman died in Hong Kong on Thursday. Nearly 60 people have fallen ill in Vietnam from the virus, which is believed to have originated in southern China late last year. Most infections are in China, Hong Kong and Vietnam, but it is fast spreading to Singapore, Canada and Taiwan, with linked cases in Australia, Britain, Brunei, Canada, Spain and the United States. Most of the cases have been medical staff at hospitals or relatives of people who have fallen ill. The World Health Organisation said the boy, believed to be 11 years old, had travelled to the northern resort town of Sapa on a school trip before falling sick. U.S. ambassador Raymond Burghardt told a meeting of diplomats that the boy, who lives in Ho Chi Minh City, had also been in Hanoi but had no apparent link to any health care workers or other victims. He said doctors from the Centers for Disease Control who are helping with the crisis concluded he had symptoms that "meets completely the profile of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome)". Pascale Brudon, a representative of the WHO in Hanoi, said: "It's too early to have a definite conclusion" that the illness was spreading beyond the medical worker community who had been directly infected. She also said doctors had not ruled out the virus being spread from animals to humans. However, Brudon stressed that the disease was not believed to be spread by casual contact. The early symptoms are similar to influenza, and include high fever and respiratory problems. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=117&art_id=qw1048070161267B215&set_id=1 Frantic search for 'flumonia' cause continues March 19 2003 at 01:46PM Hong Kong - Scientists on Wednesday reported promising leads in the frantic search for the cause of a baffling respiratory illness as the death toll climbed and infections continued spreading in three continents. At least seven deaths directly attributed to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) have been reported by health authorities over the past week, three in Hong Kong, and two each in Vietnam and Canada. Another two victims in Hong Kong have died after contracting SARS, but were also suffering from other problems, while seven fatalities in mainland China are under investigation as possible SARS cases. Singapore's ministry of health (MOH) said preliminary findings by experts at the Singapore General Hospital and the Defence Medical Research Intitute showed that the "likely infective agent" belongs to the paramyxovirus family. Spain has also reported its first suspected case of the disease "This corroborates early investigation results by overseas centres in Germany and Hong Kong," the MOH said in a statement. More than 250 reported SARS infections have now been monitored by health authorities in Asia, Europe and North America over the past week. Over 300 similar cases from an earlier outbreak in China are still under study. A French doctor who treated the first case of SARS diagnosed in Vietnam died on Wednesday in Hanoi, the French embassy said. Jean-Paul Derosier, a 65-year-old anaesthetist, had been in critical condition for several days at the French Hospital in Hanoi. He had been in direct contact with a 48-year-old American who fell ill during a business trip to Hanoi and died in hospital last week in Hong Kong. A Vietnamese nurse who was also involved in the treatment died last weekend. 'No restrictions on travel to any destination are necessary' Hong Kong Health Secretary Yeoh Eng-kiong said on Wednesday that five people including the US businessman have died in the territory after they were stricken with SARS, and the number of infected people had risen to 145. Two of them died following complications that included heart and liver diseases and further tests needed to determine whether SARS was the main cause of death. Two Canadian family members in Toronto who had visited Asia have also died of SARS. Experts believe that five deaths out of 305 infections from an earlier outbreak in southern China which peaked last month were also caused by SARS, but further tests are being conducted to confirm this. In another incident, a man and his wife died in Beijing this month from "atypical pneumonia" but health officials in China could not confirm that the deaths were SARS-linked. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a bulletin on Tuesday that "efforts are under way to expedite identification of the causative agent, improve diagnostic precision, and develop a diagnostic test." It said a network of 11 highly qualified laboratories in 10 countries had launched a data sharing and regular reporting system. Singapore said on Wednesday that local infections had risen to 31 with no deaths so far. In Germany, a doctor at Frankfurt University said three Singaporeans, a doctor who had treated SARS patients, his wife and mother-in-law, were confirmed to be SARS victims. They were confined after flying in from New York last weekend. Spain has also reported its first suspected case of the disease, a man who spent a week last month in Beijing. Cases or suspected cases have also been reported in Australia, Britain, Brunei, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Romania, Slovenia, Taiwan and Thailand. The WHO said "no restrictions on travel to any destination are necessary" but persons travelling to Asia should be aware of the major symptoms of SARS, and of the need to report promptly to a health care worker in the unlikely event they fall ill during their travel or after returning home. "Awareness of the disease is now very high throughout the world. 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