- BEIJING (Reuters) - Two people
in China's Inner Mongolia region have died from the SARS virus, the first
time the disease has been reported in the far-flung north, the official
Xinhua news agency said.
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- A total of 10 cases were reported in the regional capital
of Hohhot, Xinhua reported late on Friday, citing the city's health department.
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- Two of the 10 patients had recovered, it said. Among
the infected, nine were from two families and one was a health care worker,
the agency reported.
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- Chinese and World Health Organization (WHO) officials
were not immediately available for comment.
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- China said on Friday that 58 people had died from SARS,
or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, in six provinces around the country.
About 1,300 people have been infected.
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- SARS is believed to have originated late last year in
China's southern Guangdong province and then spread to nearby Hong Kong.
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- WHO officials said on Friday the epidemic was being contained
elsewhere in the world but they were worried about China.
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- "There is one caveat and that is China. We do not
know what is going on outside Guangdong," said David Heymann, WHO
head of communicable diseases.
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- WHO doctors visited the southern province and had words
of praise for local health officials but they feared the disease had spread.
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- "The question is what is the dynamic of the epidemic
elsewhere in China. The surveillance systems in many of these provinces
are not strong enough to pick up all of the cases," said Mike Ryan,
WHO head of global alert and response coordination.
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