Military

DATE=4/2/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=W-H-O-SARS WARNING (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-301647

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The World Health Organization, in a rare move, has issued a warning against traveling to Hong Kong and the southern Chinese province of Guangdong because of a deadly outbreak of a mysterious flu-like illness called SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports latest W-H-O figures estimate that more than two-thousand people have been infected with SARS, and more than 70 have died.

TEXT: The W-H-O said Wednesday it is advising tourists and business people to postpone travel to Hong Kong and Guangdong province in China because it does not completely understand the disease, for which there is as yet no known drug or vaccine.

The head of W-H-O's Communicable Disease Program, David Heymann, says at least nine foreign businessmen have contracted the killer SARS pneumonia in Hong Kong. He says they have returned home to their country with the infection, raising fears that they might transmit the disease to others.

He says W-H-O also is warning against traveling to Guangdong because it has little information about the progression of SARS in the Chinese province.

/// HEYMANN ACT ///

This is the first time we have recommended people avoid an area and this is, of course, because we do not understand the disease completely, because there is no vaccine and there is no drug. So, this is the first time that we have made this type of a recommendation in recent years to avoid an area because of a disease.

/// END ACT ///

Dr. Heymann says, in his words, there is no way we can tell for sure whether SARS has peaked internationally. But he adds that the number of cases continues to grow, so, as he puts it, the disease is still traveling around the world.

Dr. Heymann says W-H-O experts will be re-evaluating this warning day by day and will make a decision each day as to whether it needs to be changed. He also says W-H-O is concerned by the way SARS is being transmitted in Hong Kong.

/// HEYMANN 2nd ACT ///

In Hong Kong, they have found that transmission does not seem to be only by close contact from person to person. It appears that there is something in the environment which is transferring the virus which is serving as a vehicle to transfer the virus from one person to another.

/// END ACT ///

Dr. Heymann says experts do not believe the virus is spreading through the air. He says a more likely explanation is that it may be infecting people through a water or sewage system.

He says he is confident Hong Kong will, in a few days, have a better understanding of what is going on and be better able to control the outbreak. (Signed)

NEB/LS/ALW