- BRUSSELS -- The SARS virus
is likely to kill people all over the world by later this year, even if
it levels off for the moment, US secretary for health Tommy G.Thompson
warned Tuesday.
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- He also warned that international airlines may face more
bad news if the virus continues to spread.
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- "Even though it may level off now it could come
back in the fall, and then you can I think anticipate that you will have
deaths in all the continents, or a lot of the continents," he told
reporters.
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- Asked how confident he was that United States and Europe
could avoid SARS deaths, he said: "I'm not confident at all. I think
you will see them."
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- The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus has
so far hit China and Hong Kong worst, but most major outbreaks appear to
be easing, except in Taiwan.
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- Asia has had by far the biggest number of deaths - over
600 by the latest count - and the only other deaths have occurred in Canada.
Europe, the United States, Africa and Latin American have all had confirmed
spaces, but no one has died.
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- The US Secretary of Health and Human Services, who was
speaking after meeting EU officials in Brussels, said airlines should brace
for possibly more bad news.
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- The SARS virus has hit the airline industry hard, just
as it was hoping to pull out of a post-September 11 slump. The industry's
top group IATA warned this month that worldwide airlines were set to lose
another 10 billion dollars this year.
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- "To the airlines I'd say that I'm sorry but my job
is to protect the public health of Americans," said Thompson. "But
if the epidemic continues there will be more countries that we will have
to put a travel advisory on, which will hurt the airlines even more,"
he said.
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- He underlined the importance of avoiding countries currently
subject to US travel advisories - China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
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- "I would strongly recommend that you don't travel,
unless it's absolutely necessary, to those countries at this point in time,
until the epidemic is brought completedly under control," he said.
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- The US official, who was lobbying European officials
in Brussels for more money for the global fight against AIDS, had addressed
the SARS problem at the World Health Organization's annual assembly in
Geneva on Monday, he said.
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- Specifically he said the US had earmarked 20-25 million
dollars to set up an early warning system for SARS and other new infectious
diseases.
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- He said a major initial problem had been in persuading
authorities in China, where the disease has hit hardest, to be open about
the problem and to hand over medical samples of the virus to be studied.
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- But he was not optimistic about the chances of keeping
SARS out completedly.
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- "With the tremendous transit populations we have
right now, you've got to assume that somebody from Europe will pick it
up in one of the affected countries and bring it back," he said. "I
don't think SARS is going to go away," he added.
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