Military

DATE=04/15/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=CHINA SARS WHO UPDATE (L-O)

NUMBER=2-302226

BYLINE=JIM RANDLE

DATELINE=BEIJING

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: World Health Organization officials say they have managed to inspect a Chinese hospital alleged to be treating unreported SARS patients. But the disease experts are saying little about what they found there. V-O-A's Jim Randle reports the visit follows charges that Beijing is covering up the true extent of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

TEXT: World Health Organization experts in Beijing want to investigate several military hospitals where a prominent Chinese surgeon said about 100 SARS patients were being hidden from international health officials.

In Geneva, W-H-O spokesman Dick Thompson says the experts were able to see only part of what they were seeking.

/// THOMPSON ACT ///

They have visited one military hospital. They are completing their report and will be delivering it tomorrow.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Thompson did not say if the scientists found unreported patients or if they will be able to visit the other hospitals allegedly hiding SARS patients.

Chinese officials deny they have hidden anything, and Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao says the government is cooperating well with the W-H-O.

/// LIU ACT IN CHINESE, ESTABLISH AND FADE ///

He says W-H-O officials have praised China's efforts, and such "fruitful cooperation" will continue.

The official Xinhua News Agency says the city has mobilized 25-hundred medical workers to visit the homes of suspected SARS patients or those at risk of contracting the disease.

All across China, workers have been disinfecting airports, taxis, subways and other public facilities in the hope of stopping the spread of SARS.

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has told officials to screen travelers on airplanes, trains and buses for the severe flu-like symptoms of SARS and to quarantine those who appear infected.

The SARS virus appeared late last year in southern China. It has spread around the world, infecting more than three-thousand people and killing nearly 150. Two-thirds of the victims are in China and Hong Kong. (SIGNED)

NEB/HK/JR/KPD/RAE