Officials warn SARS may be far more dangerous than initially thought

Workers carry the coffin of a nurse who died from SARS during a burial ceremony Wednesday in Hong Kong.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that more than 500 people worldwide have died from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). And as doctors warn that the disease is twice as deadly as recent estimates indicated, international officials are racing to contain it.

A street festival in Hong Kong became a campaign against SARS on Thursday when residents began praying and casting spells. A child was dressed as a doctor and carried through the streets as a symbol of hope.

Outside Beijing, the Chinese capital, residents ransacked a school when they found out that officials planned to use it as a SARS quarantine facility. The Chinese government called the situation "grim," and it is continuing its system of quarantine and hygiene in an effort to stop the disease from spreading.

WHO reported on Thursday that there were 7,053 cases of SARS worldwide, and that 506 people had died of the disease. Those figures yield an apparent death rate of 7.2 percent, but WHO now believes the actual SARS death rate is closer to 15 percent.

Though the U.S. has not reported a new case of SARS within its borders since Sunday, health officials are still uneasy. Dr. Julie Gerberding, who heads the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said that "despite all of this technology capacity and our strong emphasis on communicating information and science to people...we are experiencing ongoing vulnerability" to SARS. "Until this disease is contained everywhere in the world," she added, "it remains a problem for all of us."

96.8 percent of current SARS cases are in and around China. WHO is warning against travel to Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taipei as well as four other Chinese provinces. The organization fears that remote areas are not prepared to fight the disease. "You need to be ready for the prevention; you need to be ready for your hospital infection control; you need to be ready for the treatment, et cetera," so there are many steps a province needs to take in order to deal effectively with SARS, said Henk Bekedam, WHO representative to China.

The CDC says it now believes in a so-called "super spreader" theory with regard to SARS. For example, 81 percent of the people in Singapore who contracted SARS did not pass the virus to anyone else, but five people in the Asian country were super spreaders who spread the virus to a total of 144 others.

The State Department says the U.S. Agency for International Development is contributing emergency funds to help China bolster its public health system and fight SARS.