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WHO extends Taiwan SARS warning
HONG KONG, China -- The World Health Organization has broadened its advisory against travel to all of Taiwan, as the island struggles to cope with the fastest-growing outbreak of the SARS virus in the world. The WHO on May 8 warned travelers to defer trips to the Taiwan capital of Taipei but on Wednesday extended its caution to include all of the province. While the rest of Asia as well as Canada are making significant headway in the fight against SARS, the same cannot be said of Taiwan where the number of new SARS cases has been spiraling higher. Taipei on Wednesday reported 35 new SARS cases, a slight drop from a record rise of 39 the day before, but it brought the island's confirmed cases to 418. In a bout of good news for the region, the World Health Organization (WHO) has taken the Philippines off its travel advisory list, after the Southeast Asian nation recorded no new SARS cases for 20 days. Australia's foreign ministry also removed Singapore from its travel advisory list. The island-state has reported just one new case in the past three weeks. As SARS shows signs of ebbing in many parts of Asia, all eyes have shifted to Taiwan, which has the third-highest count after China and Hong Kong. So far 52 people have died on the island. Even more troubling for health officials is the jump in the number of people with SARS-like symptoms. Health officials are working off a backlog of more than 474 SARS-related cases -- people showing symptoms but who have not yet been confirmed with the flu-like virus. The cases are listed as "pending" and were yet to be determined as SARS infections. This means the total number of cases could yet rise dramatically. Last week, Taiwan's Minister of Health Twu Shiing-jer quit over criticism of the way authorities were handling the outbreak. Sources close to the battle say Taiwan is at a crossroads, with officials saying their efforts are being hampered by the fact they are not part of the WHO. (WHO rebuffs Taiwan) In Tawian's hospitals -- where over 90 percent of the cases have struck -- many doctors and nurses are already ill or in quarantine, and over 100 more have quit their jobs, too afraid to care for the victims. Taiwan's authorities are furious and one newspaper compared the medical personnel to soldiers fleeing in battle. (Panic hits Taiwan hospitals) Unless officials move quickly to contain the outbreak in hospitals and do a more effective job of tracing contacts, the epidemic risks taking a turn for the worse with potentially serious consequences for the health care system, they say. China, HK down
Mainland China meanwhile, which has seen the world's largest number of SARS cases, reported just two new deaths and 12 probable cases Wednesday. The latest figures are a continuation of a steady downward trend in the number of officially reported cases. Beijing, one of the worst-hit areas, has seen an especially rapid decline in cases. However, city health officials have denied a rapid decrease in the capital's figures in recent days indicated intentional under-reporting or a cover-up. "I do not think we can exclude the possibility of a fluctuation in the number of new cases," Liang Wannian, a deputy chief of the Beijing health administration, told a news conference. As China's goal is to eradicate SARS, there is no reason to under-report the numbers now, he added. On April 20, China's health minister was sacked along with Beijing's mayor for having seriously under-reported the number of SARS cases in China to that point. On Monday the head of the WHO team in Beijing said he remained concerned some people with mild SARS symptoms might be released from hospital too early or otherwise not counted among SARS victims. The WHO says it believes the information gap is technical in nature and not a cover-up. Liang acknowledged that while new cases were sometimes misdiagnosed by mistake, the extent of under-reporting is negligible. In other developments: • Medical authorities in Hong Kong reported two SARS deaths Wednesday and a single new case. The territory is hoping it will soon record its first day in months without any new infections. • In what will be welcome news to crisis-ridden airlines, a top WHO official says the risk of catching SARS aboard an aircraft was "infinitesimally low." Mike Ryan, WHO's global coordinator for anti-SARS efforts, said just 16 out of 7,800 cases worldwide had caught the bug while aboard airplanes. He said airport screening measures have reduced the danger of infection in the air to negligible levels. • Russian authorities have closed 31 of its 51 border crossings with China and Mongolia, suspended most flights to and from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. (Russia tries to stop SARS express) -- CNN's Mike Chinoy in Taipei, Taiwan and CNN Beijing Correspondent Lisa Rose Weaver contributed to this report
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