HK Sars deaths leap

Hong Kong reported a record nine Sars deaths in a day yesterday, including its youngest victim to date, as the Chinese capital of Beijing at last woke up to a virus creeping into its hinterland.

US and Canadian scientists said they had independently mapped the genome of the new virus blamed for causing Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars), raising hopes a test could be developed so treatment can be given as soon as possible.

But with airlines cancelling flights, tourists staying at home and shops and restaurants empty in Sars hotspots like Hong Kong and Singapore, Asian governments are facing their greatest challenge since the 1997-98 regional economic crisis.

The Standard & Poor's rating agency said the impact would cut 0.6 per centto 1.5 per centof the gross domestic product in Hong Kong. Singapore's GDP could be 0.4 to 2.0 per centlower and China's could lose up to 0.5 percent.

Carried around the world by travellers after first appearing in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, the virus has infected 3,300 people and killed 144 in more than 20 countries.

In Hong Kong, neighbouring Guangdong, the government said Sars had killed nine more people yesterday and infected 42.

The youngest of yesterday's victims was a 32-year-old woman, the youngest yet to die of the disease in the former British colony which was returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

"I think during the last couple of days, our concerns remain the number of deaths and of the people who died some of them were rather young," Hospital Authority acting Chief Executive Ko Wing-man told a news conference.

The dead also included a pregnant woman. Ko said the treatment used in Hong Kong now - a mix of anti-viral drugs and steroids - had seen good response in 80-90 per cent of patients.

Of the 42 newly infected patients, 11 were health-care workers. "We are experiencing a difficult time now because many patients have accumulated in public hospitals," Ko said.

The latest figures bring the Hong Kong death toll to 56 and the number of cases to 1,232.

After months of hiding their Sars outbreak, China's leaders started a highly publicised battle to halt its spread.

Nearly half of the world's cases have occurred in China, where 64 people have died and more than 1,430 have been infected.

Premier Wen Jiabao called on "the whole nation" to "work closely together to win the fierce battle" against Sars, and ordered a campaign to scrub down planes, trains, buses, trucks, taxis and office blocks to kill the virus.

Fearful of a longer-term impact on Asia's fastest growing economy, Wen and Communist Party boss Hu Jintao have appeared in major hospitals and met doctors on the front lines of the battle against Sars.

Posters have been plastered around city streets and subways calling on people to wash their hands after wiping their noses, cut down on drinking and smoking and keep face masks handy.

But the disease is spreading around China. The southeastern province of Fujian reported its first cases. Infections in Beijing rose sharply. More cases were logged in Guangdong, which opened its flagship Canton Trade Fair on Wednesday with foreign participation well down.

Poor northern Shanxi, one of the first provinces to report Sars in travellers from Guangdong, saw an alarming spike in reported cases to 82 since March.

The World Health Organisation says Sars will be hard to track in the hinterland, where the health system receives one fifth of government spending but serves 70 per cent of the population.

China, under fire for being slow in reporting the Guangdong outbreak to the international community, is now issuing updates rapid-fire. The Health Ministry reports cases daily to WHO, while Beijing and Guangdong file separate and often confusing tallies.

Still, scepticism at this sudden transparency remains. Last week, a Beijing military doctor criticised the health minister for covering up Sars cases and said there were at least 140 cases in military hospitals in the capital alone. A WHO team was still waiting to be allowed into them.

"They have not yet granted WHO experts permission to visit military hospitals, which have been the focus of numerous rumours," WHO said on its Web site (www.who.int).

The grim economic toll has rippled through the region. WHO said in a statement the global economic consequences, now estimated at US$30 billion, could be greater should Sars continue to spread.

S&P said the outbreak would lower economic growth rates for much of Asia in 2003 as the disease changes lifestyles and dents consumption, with the gravest damage inflicted on Hong Kong.

"The adjustments in each economy are largely proportionate to the gravity of the outbreak, and to the importance of tourism and domestic consumption to the economy," said Ping Chew, S&P's Asia-Pacific Sovereign Ratings Group director.

In Hong Kong, the cabinet huddled to discuss how to ease the pain of Hong Kong's seven million people. About 60,000 restaurant and hotel workers have either lost their jobs or are on unpaid leave. Unions say the jobless rate may hit eight percent.

The International Monetary Fund said Vietnam's rapid economic growth would be curbed by the spread of Sars, but not as severely as Hong Kong and Singapore.

Singapore, with the world's fourth-highest number of cases at 162, backed temporary wage cuts and shorter work weeks for the tourist sector. Thirteen people are believed to have died from Sars.

It said the number of visitors dropped by more than half in early April, the first official indication of the scale of damage to the tourism sector.

Canadian health officials said Sars had spread to a tightly knit religious group in Toronto, with 31 probable and suspect cases. With 13 deaths, Canada is the only country outside Asia where people have died of Sars.

In one bright spot, Japan cleared all but one of 45 suspected Sars cases. Health experts credited pure luck - and handwashing.