Fwd: UN Warns of Worldwide Threat From Killer Pneumonia

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UN Warns of Worldwide Threat from Killer PneumoniaScience - Reuters !

 

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (news - web sites) warned on

Saturday of a " worldwide health threat " as a mystery killer pneumonia spread

from east Asia to other parts of the globe.

 

 

Releasing a rare " emergency travel advisory, " the United Nations (news - web

sites) health agency said an ill passenger had been taken to an isolation unit

in Frankfurt, Germany, on Saturday after being removed from a plane en route

from New York to Singapore.

 

A spokesman for the Geneva-based body said there were also reports two people

had died in Canada, taking the death toll to eight since the first outbreak of

severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), an atypical pneumonia of which the

cause is not yet known, was detected in China in February.

 

Among the dead is an American businessman taken ill in Hanoi after visiting

Shanghai. He died on Thursday in Hong Kong where 47 cases have been reported.

 

Another 41 people are being treated for the illness in Hanoi and two of them are

in a critical condition, according to local health officials. Cases have also

been reported in Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

 

Most cases have been among hospital workers.

 

" This syndrome, SARS, is now a worldwide health threat, " WHO director-general

Gro Harlem Brundtland said in a statement.

 

In its alert, WHO said travelers and airline crews needed to be aware of the

first symptoms, which include high temperature and difficulty in breathing.

 

It was likely that anybody taken ill would have been in contact with a person

diagnosed with the disease or traveled to an area where cases had been reported,

the alert said. But it said it was not calling for restrictions in travel to any

area.

 

WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said the passenger taken from the plane in Frankfurt

was a Singapore doctor who had visited New York after treating some of the first

suspected SARS patients in Singapore.

 

WHO issued a global disease alert earlier this week because of the speed at

which it travels and because patients are not responding to the usual treatments

for pneumonia, Thompson said.

 

" As reports of cases are confirmed, you will see that there is a very high

attack rate. When they get sick, they get very sick, " he added.

 

 

 

 

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