- BEIJING (AP) - A mysterious
form of pneumonia has killed 31 people in China's southern province of
Guangdong through the end of February, a local government spokeswoman said
Wednesday.
-
- Health experts say it isn't clear whether the deaths
are linked to severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, a fatal respiratory
illness that has spread to three continents.
-
- In Guangdong, 24 people died in the provincial capital
of Guangzhou and seven were elsewhere in the province, said the spokeswoman
for the Guangzhou city government. She would give only her surname, Ye.
-
- By the end of February, there were 792 cases of infection
reported throughout the whole province, Ye said. She said 680 of those
cases were in Guangzhou and the remainder were in six other cities in Guangdong.
-
- The spokeswoman wouldn't give details on when the deaths
occurred.
-
- Until Wednesday, Chinese authorities had confirmed five
deaths and 305 people sickened since November - a figure they had stuck
to since the middle of last month. It wasn't clear why they waited until
now to confirm the additional deaths - or if the new figure included the
five original deaths.
-
- The World Health Organization has appealed to China for
better cooperation in tracking the illness.
-
- WHO says it is particularly concerned about the spread
of SARS in Hong Kong, where many residents were going around town wearing
surgical masks in hopes of avoiding infection.
-
- SARS has killed 10 people in Hong Kong out of 17 fatalities
worldwide, according to WHO figures.
-
- The Geneva-based organization has sent a team to China
to investigate a suspected link to an outbreak of atypical pneumonia in
November in Guangdong.
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- http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAJ5DXVQDD.html
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