TUESDAY, May 6, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- As the worldwide number of SARS deaths and infections continues to increase, doctors in Hong Kong say they've developed a serum for the disease that seems to be effective, CBC News Online reports.
The serum contains antibodies to the SARS virus taken from recovered SARS patients. It has been given to about 70 SARS patients at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong since late March.
The doctors who created the serum say it seems to be more effective in treating SARS than steroids or antiviral drugs. None of the people who've received the serum has died, and many have made quicker recoveries than people who didn't receive the serum, CBC News Online reports.
Despite the growing tally of SARS deaths and sickness, the director general of the World Health Organization says SARS can still be contained and eliminated.
But Gro Harlem Brundtland also notes SARS hasn't yet peaked in China, and says it's too soon to determine whether the deadly infectious respiratory disease is receding worldwide.
She made the remarks Tuesday during a meeting of European health ministers. They're planning a coordinated response to SARS in Europe, which has only 33 probable cases and no deaths.
Meanwhile, U.S. health officials Tuesday lifted travel advisories to Singapore and Hanoi, Vietnam, where the SARS outbreak appears to be diminishing. For both nations, the advisories have been downgraded to an "alert," the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
While an "advisory" suggests travelers defer nonessential travel to an affected area, an "alert" informs them of a health concern at the destination and advises specific precautions to avoid the problem.
Removing an advisory is done for several reasons, such as no new outbreaks, and evidence that adequate surveillance for SARS is in place.
As of Tuesday, Singapore had 204 reported cases of SARS; 149 of the patients have recovered, and 27 have died. In Vietnam, 58 of the 63 reported patients with SARS have recovered, while five have died.
Worldwide, 6,727 people have been infected with the virus, and 478 have died, according to World Health Organization tallies. More than 2,800 patients have recovered.
Travel advisories remain in force for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Other news about the respiratory disease that has been sweeping the globe is mixed. While containment in the United States remains successful, the hunt for an effective anti-viral treatment continues, CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding told reporters Tuesday at a press briefing. The United States has had 65 reported SARS cases but no deaths. Thirty-two of the 65 patients have recovered.
But the testing of antivirals to combat the SARS virus has not yet produced anything that will prove useful to a patient, Gerberding said. "We are not pessimistic," she added, noting that numerous combinations of compounds remain to be tested. "But obviously there is a great deal of work to be done."
Amid reports that the virus may live longer on surfaces than previously thought, Gerberding said it's known the virus can survive for at least 24 hours, and some researchers suggest it can live even longer.
But face-to-face transmission is still viewed as the most likely source of infection. So, the best way to avoid the virus remains the same, she says: frequent hand-washing and good hygiene.
In China, Premier Wen Jiabao says the SARS epidemic is grave in the capital city of Beijing, and warned government officials that they'd be punished if they didn't work hard to fight the disease, the Associated Press reports.
All 13 million residents of Beijing are under unofficial isolation, says BBC News Online. Roads out of the city are blocked, flights are cancelled, and schools are closed. There are about 2,000 SARS cases in Beijing.
China is the country hardest hit by SARS. It reported eight new deaths and 138 more cases Tuesday. The number of total reported cases there stands at 4,409 and the death toll is 214.
In their attempts to control the crisis, Chinese authorities are taking harsh action. About 10,000 people in the eastern city of Nanjing have been quarantined, the BBC reports.
Only four SARS cases have been reported in Nanjing, but officials say the massive quarantine is necessary to ensure no new infections or deaths.
In Hong Kong, there were six SARS deaths reported Tuesday and nine new cases of infection. In Taiwan, there were two more deaths reported, and officials extended mandatory home quarantine for anyone in Taipei suspected of being infected with SARS, the AP reports.
The mayor of Taipei warned that anyone who broke the quarantine would be detained by a SARS taskforce.
In Canada, which has had more SARS cases than any country outside of Asia, researchers are reporting that the majority of cases were related to hospital exposure, according to early release Tuesday of an upcoming article in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The first cases of SARS in Canada involved a family of Hong Kong descent who live in Toronto. They had traveled to China and stayed with a group of people who probably had SARS. When the family returned to Canada, one member became sick and died. Another family member was admitted to a local community hospital, which became the epicenter for the Toronto outbreak, the journal says.
Meanwhile, Colombia reported its first probable SARS case, a sign that the disease may be starting to spread to new areas, BBC News Online says.
In the United States, concern about SARS prompted the University of California, Berkeley to turn away hundreds of new summer students from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, The New York Times reports.
The decision was based on advice from the city's health officer and campus health experts. Berkeley is the first U.S. university to take such action.
More information
For more information on SARS, visit the World Health
Organization or the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
