SARS the "threat"

[Wirraway]

No Medical Cover for travellers to SARS Countries

Thurs "Sydney Morning Herald"

Travellers told to avoid five destinations as SARS spreads
By Michael Bradley and Ben Wyld
April 3 2003

Australians have been told to avoid travelling to five destinations affected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome and warned those using airports in these places should wear face masks.

The recommendations apply to China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and Canada.

The updated travel advisory, issued by the Department of Trade and Foreign Affairs, led the Insurance Council of Australia to warn the level of cover would be reduced for travel in those places.

QBE and American International Group said medical cover would no longer be offered and
Royal & SunAlliance said it would not issue travel insurance for these countries.

Three people are under investigation in Australia for SARS, which has killed at least 75 people and infected more than 2000.

Even then, a World Health Organisation official, epidemiologist Robert Breiman, who is a member of the WHO team in China, said yesterday he did not think SARS had peaked internationally.

In Darwin, a 25-year-old man is being treated in hospital having been admitted yesterday with a high fever and cough. He had recently travelled to Singapore and is being treated in an isolation ward.

Twenty-three students and two teachers from a Queensland private school who returned to Australia from Hong Kong yesterday are to be kept out of class. The students, all members of The Southport School under-14 rugby team, had been competing in a rugby tournament.

DFAT said people transiting through airports in the five countries listed were at very low risk, but added that "it would be prudent, while in transit, to avoid close contact with persons who are unwell" and that "a simple surgical face mask and regular hand washing will offer added protection".

Qantas, Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines yesterday announced they would waive all airline-related charges for customers wanting to change travel plans.

Sydney Airport has also adopted tighter disease surveillance measures. Pilots now have to seek quarantine clearance before landing by declaring whether any unwell people are onboard.

In overseas developments on SARS yesterday:

· A critically ill Singapore woman has shown a slight improvement after she was treated with serum taken from the blood of a recovered patient.
· Indonesia's Government promised to rush in new laws to give it more power to control the spread of infectious diseases after disclosing three suspect cases.

· Two more people with SARS died in Canada yesterday, bringing the national total to six dead and 129 probable cases.

· Thailand reported its second death from the disease.

· An American Airlines flight from Tokyo was quarantined in California yesterday after five people on board complained of SARS symptoms.

· The New Zealand Government warned Maoris not to perform their traditional greeting - rubbing noses - with Chinese delegates at a conference near Wellington, for fear they could contract the virus.

The Catholic Church in Hong Kong has discouraged priests from distributing wine during Communion and ordered them to wear masks during the service. Wafers are to be put in the hands of the faithful rather than directly on the tongue.

The Australian director of the Hong Kong Development Council said two trade exhibitions scheduled for Hong Kong this month will go ahead as planned.

Of the 600 Australian delegates expected at the 5000-exhibitor fairs, only about a dozen have said they would cancel.

In Malaysia, a newspaper reported a fatality as the country's first SARS victim, but health officials said there were no confirmed cases.
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Thurs "Sydney Morning Herald"

China coming clean on spread of killer illness
By Hamish McDonald, Herald Correspondent in Beijing, and agencies
April 3 2003

China's wall of silence on the lethal pneumonia epidemic started to break open yesterday when health officials in southern Guangdong province reported 361 new cases of the illness and nine more deaths during March.

This appears to contradict earlier claims that the outbreak was "under control". At the same time, a team of four experts sent by the World Health Organisation was given permission to visit Guangdong, the suspected origin of the new disease, after waiting five days in Beijing for a response.

The figures bring the number of severe acute respiratory syndrome cases in China to 967 at the end of the March, with 43 reported deaths, though more cases might be added later from other Chinese provinces.
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