SARS ‘under control’ in Hong Kong
The threat from the SARS virus in south-east Asia appears to be diminishing, with the World Health Organisation announcing the removal of travel warnings against Hong Kong and the Chinese province of Guandong.
The WHO recommended that people should postpone all non-essential travel to the areas at the beginning of April, but it now claims that the situation has “improved significantly”.
The organisation’s decision is particularly significant because the atypical pneumonia is believed to have originated in Guandong province last November.
Airports in Hong Kong and Guandong will still have to screen all passengers leaving on international fights to ensure that the potentially fatal virus does not spread any further, but the number of new cases has fallen to low levels, leading to hopes that the areas may become infection free.
New-case rates have fallen into single figures in both areas, and the number of people who are regarded as being infectious has fallen below 60. All new cases of the diseases are occurring in people who had already been identified as having had contact with a SARS sufferer.
The WHO has also reviewed the travel recommendations for other areas of China, including Beijing, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Taiwan and Tianjin, but warnings regarding those areas remain in place.
Mainland China has seen an improvement with the number of daily cases dropping to below 60, but Taiwan is continuing to struggle to contain the disease.
Globally there have been more than 8,000 cases of SARS and nearly 700 deaths.
