SARS cases mount as WHO warns travelers

New cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome continued to mount Wednesday as the World Health Organization advised against travel to Hong Kong and the Chinese province of Guangdong because of the risk posed by the disease -- a mysterious, pneumonia-like illness that so far has killed nearly 80 people worldwide and infected more than 2,200.

"We have decided to make a recommendation that people who are planning travel to both Hong Kong and Guangdong, which as you know is adjacent to Hong Kong, consider postponing their travel until another time," Dr. David Heymann, WHO's executive director for communicable diseases, said at a news conference in Geneva.

Chinese government officials Wednesday disclosed 12 more deaths from the disease known as SARS. New suspected cases also were reported in areas previously thought unaffected, including three deaths each in Beijing and Guangxi, and non-fatal cases in Shanghai, Hunan and Sichuan.

As the number of infected Chinese continues to rise, Heymann said, the WHO expects the epidemic to worsen internationally. Although the disease appears to have peaked in Guangdong, it is still spreading there, he added. Guangdong reported 361 cases and nine deaths in March alone.

Heymann said the advisory for Guangdong was imposed because "we do not understand yet what is going on" there. He said attempts to control the outbreak in Singapore, Vietnam and Canada seem to be working.

He noted the source could be an object people are touching, another SARS patient who has coughed, or even a sewage or water system that conveys the virus from one sick person to another.

"We see clusters of cases where there is one case, for example, living in an apartment building, where other people in that apartment building have been infected," he said, adding that as soon as either the causative agent or means of transmission was discovered, WHO officials would lift the travel advisory for Hong Kong and Guangdong.

"In Hong Kong, they have found that transmission does not seem to be only by close contact from person to person," Heymann said. "It appears that there is something in the environment that is transferring virus," which somehow allows the organism to move from one person to another. "We do not believe this is the air," however, he said.

On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department authorized the departure, on a voluntary basis, of non-emergency employees and all family members at the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong and in Guangzhou as a precautionary measure.

Late Wednesday local time, Zhang Wenkang, China's health minister, announced the daily rate of new SARS cases had fallen steadily.

"In Guangdong at the height of the epidemic there were 60 or 70 new cases every day," Zhang said on state-run television. "Today there were fewer than 10."

Zhang said of 1,190 confirmed cases in China, 934 patients had made a full recovery -- 911 of them in Guangdong. He said the rate of recovery of infected patients was between "79 to 80 percent" and there were "fewer and fewer deaths."

WHO statistics show the current SARS death toll in China stands at 46, including 40 in Guangdong.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said Wednesday it has made some progress in its SARS investigation.

"We are not confirming that the coronavirus is the cause of SARS," said CDC director Dr. Julie L. Gerberding. However, she added, "This may be very strong evidence of an association with SARS (even though) it's not yet proof at this point in time."

Gerberding told reporters during a tele-briefing other viruses still under investigation, "so until we meet all of our scientific indicators for causality, we're going to err on the side of caution and be open to other hypotheses as we go forward."

Meanwhile, in other SARS-related developments:

-- An elderly man became the second person in Thailand to die from SARS. The first was a visiting Italian doctor, the Bangkok Post reported.

-- Seven medical workers at Hong Kong's United Christian Hospital have become the latest group to become infected, The Standard reported.

-- Although no SARS cases have been reported in South Korea, health officials said they are concerned it is just a matter of time because 3,000 people have arrived there from nations where the disease has been reported, the Korea Herald reported.

-- Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Wednesday ordered tighter security at all ports to protect against the deadly pneumonia strain. "We must try to keep out the disease as much as possible while keeping an eye on sustaining normal, commercial and immigration activities," she said, the country's Today newspaper reported.

-- In Indonesia, although no cases have yet been reported, Batam authorities have given all schools on the island a four-day vacation starting Thursday to ward off a possible outbreak, the Jakarta Post reported.

-- In Johor Baru, Malaysia, eight people with SARS-like symptoms have been hospitalized for examination and laboratory tests, The Star reported.

-- In Taiwan, despite an absence of cases, the Ministry of National Defense said rapid-response mechanism has been activated to counter a potential outbreak, the Taipei Times reported.

-- In Vietnam, the Ministry of Health is requiring all people entering the country to make a health declaration in an attempt to keep the fatal virus at bay, the Vietnam News Service reported.

-- On Fiji, authorities are monitoring a woman who returned from Singapore with SARS-like symptoms, Go Asia Pacific reported.

-- The Indian government has ordered all hospitals to prepare for possible cases, although none have been reported so far, the Times of India reported.

(With additional reporting by Krishnadev Calamur and Liz Carver of the UPI News Desk.)