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Beijing U.N. worker dies of SARS
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- A Finnish employee with the United Nations' International Labor Organization died here early Sunday of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, a Chinese health ministry official announced during a hastily called news conference. Pekka Aro, 53, was in Thailand from March 18 to March 23, before flying to Beijing on business, health officials said. He began showing symptoms of SARS five days later. Aro was admitted to a Beijing hospital Wednesday, and his condition considerably deteriorated Saturday, officials said. He never made it back to his home in Geneva, Switzerland. Meanwhile, Chinese health officials have contacted Thai Airways to ask about passengers on flight TG-614, the one Aro took March 28 from Bangkok to Beijing. However, they haven't found any of the other passengers infected with SARS, officials said. Before his death, health officials remember Aro telling them he thought he contracted the deadly virus on that flight. The government of Thailand ordered stringent measures to keep SARS from spreading in the country, including the U.S. State Department said Friday in a statement. All passengers and crew getting off planes from Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Vietnam must fill out a health-control document and then proceed to quarantine inspection, when arriving at Thai points-of-entry. Anyone suspected of being infected with SARS may be isolated and quarantined for up to 14 days, the State Department said. Chinese officials said Aro is the first foreigner to die of SARS in Beijing. They said a Canadian is the only other foreigner to be diagnosed with SARS in Beijing. Officials did say that the number of confirmed SARS cases in Beijing jumped from 12 to 19 in just the past three days. Still, medical experts seem confident they'll be able to keep the mysterious virus under wraps. "Beijing has a perfect public health system in place," said Guo Jiyong, a Beijing health official, "and a strict surveillance system to deal with SARS." Experts said most of the new cases remain in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, where SARS was first reported in China. Health officials said that shows the situation in China is stable, since the majority of new and ongoing cases can be found in that area. Health officials said as of Saturday, a total of 1,247 SARS cases had been diagnosed in mainland China, resulting in 51 deaths. That number does not include Aro's death. Globally, 2,416 cases and 89 deaths were attributed to SARS in 18 countries as of Saturday, the World Health Organization said. --CNN Producer Steven Jiang contributed to this report. The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.
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