Military

DATE=3/19/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ASIA PNEUMONIA (SHORT)

NUMBER=2-300892

BYLINE=KATHERINE MARIA

DATELINE=HONG KONG

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Scientists say a virus related to mumps and measles could be behind outbreaks of a respiratory disease originating in Asia. As V-O-A's Katherine Maria reports two more sufferers of atypical pneumonia have died.

TEXT: Specialists in Germany found the link between the virus and the outbreak of atypical pneumonia.

The news comes a day after the World Health Organization set about coordinating 11 laboratories to trace the cause of the outbreaks.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which experts think originated in Asia, may have spread to at least three other continents and killed at least 11 people.

The worst pneumonia outbreaks are concentrated in Hanoi and Hong Kong hospitals. Two suspected victims of the disease died Tuesday in Asia.

Peter Cordingly, a W-H-O spokesman, says a Hanoi-based French doctor died after treating pneumonia patients.

/// CORDINGLY ACT ///

At the time nobody knew what we were dealing with. He was just very sick. In the end he finished up on an artificial respirator.

/// END ACT ///

In Hong Kong an elderly man died from pneumonia - doctors are still determining if his case is related to the atypical pneumonia outbreak. (SIGNED)

NEB/HK/KM/KPD