NIH Warns against Traveling to China

The National Institute of Health (NIH) yesterday imposed a travel advisory for all of China as cases of a killer pneumonia in the country continued to soar.

The advisory came after the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which raged in Guangdong Province, Hong Kong, Singapore and Hanoi, has rapidly spread to other cities in China such as Beijing.

The NIH said that the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also warned of travel to China.

10 SARS cases have been reported so far in Korea. But the examination into those cases showed that the patients had contracted pneumonia before their trip to overseas. Thus, there is no SARS patient found in Korea.

According to the World Health Organization, 1,485 suspected SARS patients have been detected in 14 countries so far, with 53 cases resulting in death. In China alone, 1,231 people are reported to have contracted the illness, including 44 deaths.

Suspecting that dogs, cats, rats and birds in Guangdong Province might be the source of the killer disease, WHO formed an inspection team in Guangdong Province, China.

Experts expect more and more people to be infected with SARS. Some countries are reported to consider banning their people from traveling to Hong Kong.

WHO reported that Dr. Carlo Urbani, who first confirmed the outbreak of SARS in Guangdong Province in Last November, died on the 29th in Thailand. He was also infected with the disease while treating SARS patients in Vietnam.

In Hong Kong, where the number of SARS patients is rapidly increasing, 78 residents in an apartment contracted SARS pneumonia. HSBC, the Bank of China and Hewlett Packard shut down their Hong Kong offices.

As 35 SARS patients were detected, Canada declared the state of health emergency in Toronto and decided to start quarantine for passengers of flights for Toronto.

The Health Ministry in France said that three French fell ill and were being treated in a hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The US CDC said that five New Yorkers were suspected of getting SARS, bringing up the number of SARS patients to 50. Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, CDC director, said that she has taken various measures to treat SARS, to no avail. She added that SARS has spread to the world more rapidly than expected and that since it was certainly a contagious infection, this might be just the prelude to a much bigger problem.

Sang-Keun Song songmoon@donga.com