World Health Organization Warns of Mystery Killer Pneumonia
A spokesman for the Geneva-based body said there were also reports two people had died in Canada, taking the death toll to eight since the first outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), an atypical pneumonia of which the cause is not yet known, was detected in China in February.
Among the dead is an American businessman taken ill in Hanoi after visiting Shanghai. He died on Thursday in Hong Kong where 47 cases have been reported.
Another 41 people are being treated for the illness in Hanoi and two of them are in a critical condition, according to local health officials. Cases have also been reported in Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Most cases have been among hospital workers.
"This syndrome, SARS, is now a worldwide health threat," WHO director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland said in a statement.
In its alert, WHO said travelers and airline crews needed to be aware of the first symptoms, which include high temperature and difficulty in breathing.
It was likely that anybody taken ill would have been in contact with a person diagnosed with the disease or traveled to an area where cases had been reported, the alert said. But it said it was not calling for restrictions in travel to any area.
WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said the passenger taken from the plane in Frankfurt was a Singapore doctor who had visited New York after treating some of the first suspected SARS patients in Singapore.
WHO issued a global disease alert earlier this week because of the speed at which it travels and because patients are not responding to the usual treatments for pneumonia, Thompson said.
"As reports of cases are confirmed, you will see that there is a very high attack rate. When they get sick, they get very sick," he added.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------