FRIDAY, May 23, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- Declaring the SARS situation is now under control in Hong Kong and China's Guangdong province, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday lifted its travel advisories against those areas.
WHO issued the advisories for the two areas in early April because they were considered hotspots for SARS, BBC News Online reports.
"WHO is changing this recommendation as the situation in these areas has now improved significantly," the U.N. agency said in a statement.
Friday was the 20th consecutive day that Hong Kong's number of new daily SARS cases was fewer than 10 people. Guangdong province was the first place in the world to have SARS cases, but WHO officials say the virus is now under control there.
The current SARS hot zone is Taiwan, where 55 new cases were reported Friday. There were no new deaths. So far, 538 people in Taiwan have been infected and 60 have died. That makes the island the third worst hit area, after China and Hong Kong.
Taiwan is having difficulty containing the virus, which has moved from the capital of Taipei to southern areas. A WHO travel advisory for Taipei was recently extended to include the entire island.
Meanwhile, there was worrisome news in Toronto, which thought it had all but eliminated the SARS threat. Health officials report that the city has four new possible SARS cases. All four people have been placed in respiratory isolation, and two are listed in critical condition, CBC News Online reports.
As a result of these cases, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced late Friday that it was reinstating a travel alert it had lifted only on Tuesday.
The alert doesn't say that people should avoid Toronto, but that they should take precautions to safeguard their health -- for instance, avoiding hospitals that might harbor the virus.
The last reported new case of SARS in Toronto was April 19. These new possible cases appeared a week after the WHO dropped Toronto from its list of SARS hotspots.
The four people are not linked or related, but all of them visited a rehabilitation facility in the city in May. Health officials are telling anyone who visited that facility between May 9 and 20 to isolate themselves, monitor their body temperatures and contact health officials for more information.
In Hong Kong, meanwhile, scientists say they may have traced the source of the SARS virus to civet cats, considered a delicacy food by some Chinese, the Associated Press reports.
The civet cat is a nocturnal animal that isn't actually a true cat. It's in the same family as the mongoose and resembles a small raccoon or weasel. Civet cats are hunted in Asia for food and to make perfume.
University of Hong Kong scientists say they suspected the SARS virus jumped from animals to humans, but they weren't certain which animal was the source of the disease. They say civet cats should be raised, slaughtered and sold under careful monitoring to prevent disease outbreaks.
Earlier this spring, researchers announced that the source of the illness was a previously unknown member of the coronavirus family.
Two coronaviruses are known to infect humans. One is responsible for about one-third of cases of the common cold, while the other frequently causes health-care-associated upper respiratory infections in premature infants.
Meanwhile, a U.S. infection-control expert who may have contracted SARS while helping deal with the epidemic in Taiwan has been identified as Chesley L. Richards Jr., The New York Times reports.
Richards, an epidemiologist, was sent to Taiwan by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He landed there May 15 and visited two Taipei hospitals with reported SARS outbreaks. Richards developed a cough and fever this week -- both common SARS symptoms.
He boarded a private jet in Taiwan on Friday and returned to the United States.
Worldwide, SARS has infected more than 8,000 people and killed at least 689. The majority of infections and deaths have been in China and Hong Kong.
More information
To learn more about SARS, visit the World Health Organization or the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
