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HK alert over killer bug cluster
HONG KONG, China -- All residents of an apartment block in Hong Kong have been ordered to quarantine themselves at home for 10 days after a steep rise in cases of a deadly form of pneumonia. The move comes as the mystery illness, known as SARS or severe acute respiratory syndrome, continues to spread across Asia and around the world. On Tuesday, Australia reported its first confirmed case to the World Health Organization -- a Sydney man who is suspected of contracting the disease while on a trip to Singapore. The Australian government's chief medical officer said in a statement that the man has since recovered and been discharged from hospital. "The man had travelled back to Australia on February 12 after spending two days in Singapore and presented to a hospital in Sydney on February 23 with fever, cough, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing," Richard Smallwood said. "The person recovered after two weeks and was well when released from hospital. There was no spread of SARS from this patient to his contacts." The Hong Kong quarantine order came into effect as the government announced that 213 residents from the Amoy Gardens apartment complex in the district of Kowloon had fallen ill with the disease. On Monday the government announced 80 new cases, and two deaths, bringing the number who have died in this territory of 6.9 million people to 15. Of the 80, 64 new cases were recorded among residents in Amoy Gardens and 16 new cases from elsewhere, bringing the total number of infections recorded in Hong Kong to 610. The high number of cases in one apartment block in particular has led some to fear that the virus could be airborne, rather than spread by droplets from sneezing or coughing as previously thought. Residents of Block E have been told they will not be allowed to leave their building until midnight on April 9. "Because of the very special circumstances that we now face, we have no choice but to resort to this exceptional measure," the Hong Kong government said in a statement. In total, more than 1,600 cases have been reported worldwide and 59 people have died. Airport screeningIn an effort to combat the spread, airlines have been urged to screen passengers at check in, with several countries introducing airport health checks for passengers arriving from SARS hotspots. Airlines have themselves reported large numbers of cancellations from worried travellers with share values in several Asian carriers plummeting as a result. On Monday the Singapore government announced that nurses would be on stand-by to examine passengers arriving on flights from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Toronto, as well as Beijing, Shanxi, and Guangdong in China -- all of which have been listed as affected areas by the World Health Organization (WHO). Some 91 cases have been reported in Singapore, three of whom have died of the disease. However, a third of those infected have since recovered from the condition with doctors in Singapore and elsewhere reporting encouraging results from a cocktail of drugs if victims receive early treatment. As in Hong Kong, Singapore has ordered all schools closed and imposed emergency quarantine orders on hundreds of people suspected of having close contact with confirmed SARS cases. Singapore's health minister said Sunday the disease may spread more easily than first believed, with some people found to be more infectious than others. Lim Hng Kiang said such individuals, whom he dubbed "super infectors", could infect as many as 40 others. "We run the risk of a huge new cluster of infected people, which could start a chain reaction," Lim told a news conference. SARS spread to other countries from Hong Kong after an infected mainland Chinese medical professor passed the illness to seven other people in a Kowloon hotel last month. They in turn carried the disease to Singapore, Vietnam and Canada. Vietnamese health officials say the outbreak there appears to be under control with no new cases reported in the last week. An official at the British Embassy in Hanoi told CNN that local government officials and medics from the United Nations health body, the World Health Organization, believe the disease has been largely confined to two hospitals in the city. Hanoi was one of the first areas to be hit by SARS reporting 58 cases of infection -- mostly staff working at a city hospital who came into contact with a visiting businessman they were treating for the disease. The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.
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