Military

DATE=10/3/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ASIA / SARS (L-O)

NUMBER=2-308197

BYLINE=KATHERINE MARIA

DATELINE=HONG KONG

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The World Health Organization says that Taiwan's SARS outbreak earlier this year effected only half as many people as originally reported. V-O-A's Katherine Maria reports on the revisions from Hong Kong, where the death rate from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome has also gone down.

TEXT: The U-N health agency on Friday made dramatic revisions to Taiwan's official SARS figures after tests showed many patients had other ailments and not Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

Hospitals in Taiwan reported a total of 682 SARS cases earlier this year. But retrospective analysis now shows that only 346 were infected. The number of deaths attributed to SARS was also revised downward.

World Health Organization Pacific spokesman Peter Cordingley says many patients might have had other types of viral pneumonia.

/// CORDINGLEY ACT ///

Taiwan, like all the other places that were affected by SARS, has been approached by the W-H-O with a view to producing a final tally of the SARS outbreak. We've asked everybody to do retro diagnosis of cases to see if they can establish if all the deaths were actually caused by

SARS.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Cordingley says that Taiwan and Hong Kong are two places where many people said to have died from SARS are now classified as having died from underlying diseases such as heart conditions or liver ailments.

Taiwan's SARS death toll, which originally listed 84 victims, is now just more than thirty deaths.

In Hong Kong, the government says the territory's death toll has gone down to 159, but the W-H-O figures still say there were 299 SARS deaths.

/// OPT ///

The statistical revisions were released around the same time as an independent report outlining the shortcomings of the Hong Kong government's handling of the crisis. The revisions and the report both angered friends and families of victims.

/// END OPT ///

Global figures on SARS are also reflecting the retrospective analysis. The new numbers show the U-N agency counting more than eight thousand SARS victims and about 770 deaths. Originally the W-H-O reported more than

84 hundred cases and 900 SARS-related deaths. (Signed)

NEB/HK/KM/MH/RH