U.S. to Cut Diplomats in Virus-Hit China

April 3, 2003
By Tan Ee Lyn

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The United States said it was cutting back its diplomats throughout China, while Canada and other countries canceled international events over an outbreak of a deadly virus that has spawned a global health crisis.

A World Health Organisation (WHO) team hunted for clues in southern China, the origin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which hits victims who are already sick the most severely.

In Hong Kong, the hardest hit place outside of mainland China, authorities on Friday feared a new outbreak among high-risk medical staff after more than 10 doctors at one hospital had fallen ill in the last few days.

The city's business life has been severely affected as people stay away from crowded places, a situation mirrored in other countries with SARS to varying degrees.

The disease killed one more person in Canada, bringing the death toll to at least 81 and infections to more than 2,300 worldwide.

The United States, which said on Tuesday it aimed to cut diplomatic staff in Hong Kong and the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, extended that decision to all of China on Thursday.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told lawmakers he intended to put the embassy in Beijing on "authorized departure" status, meaning nonessential diplomats and all embassy dependents would be offered free flights out.

Late on Thursday, Canada announced it would cancel a big medical convention by the American Association for Cancer Research because some doctors, especially those who were caring for SARS patients, feared they could spread the disease.

SPREADING BUT NOT AS FAST

SARS continues to spread but not as fast as it seemed a week ago, when public panic began rising.

Canada, the third-worst affected place so far after mainland China and Hong Kong, announced hospitals outside Toronto and its surrounding area could reinstate all surgical services and outpatient clinics, but would maintain SARS screening.

Patients brought down by the virus quickly end up in intensive care, and the sheer numbers plus the infectious risk to key medical staff can put an enormous strain on hospitals.

Hong Kong's rate of daily infections have also fallen back to 20 to 30 new cases per day, after it was hit with the biggest known outbreak in one place a week ago. More than 200 people were infected at the Amoy Gardens housing estate, who were then evacuated and isolated in special camps.

The death rate from the disease so far has been between three and four percent, but patients in areas without good medical facilities face a much higher mortality risk, doctors say.

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country and vulnerable to an epidemic across its vast but poor areas, declared SARS a dangerous, infectious disease on Thursday, opening the way for tough precautionary measures.

Three people in the country are under observation, suspected of having the virus.

Anxious to keep the disease at bay, a growing number of countries have advised citizens not to travel to affected areas.

Hong Kong's Cable Television reported on Friday that authorities in Shenzhen, a Chinese city bordering Hong Kong, had reported its first death and that 33 people had contracted the disease as of Thursday. It could be immediately confirmed.

With no medical proof yet of what causes the deadly, flu-like disease, or how it is spread, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued a worldwide warning against travel to China's Guangdong province, where the disease appears to have started last November, and neighboring Hong Kong.

New Zealand sought to heal strained relations with China on Friday after a Chinese delegation was turned away from a conference due to fears some might have the flu-like virus SARS.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff said the decision to exclude 43 Chinese officials from the conference in the city of Masterton after they arrived in the country on Wednesday was driven by uninformed fears about the virus.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23720-2003Apr3.html