Anyone have travel plans to China?
China Threatens to Execute SARS Spreaders
May 15, 10:23 AM (ET)
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
BEIJING (AP) - The SARS emergency worsened in Taiwan, which had its biggest one-day jump in cases Thursday, while China threatened possible execution for people who cause death or injury by deliberately spreading the disease.
The warning by China's Supreme Court, reported by the official Xinhua News Agency, appeared to be an effort to force compliance with quarantines and other restrictions. It cited existing laws with tough penalties, including a possible death penalty for even nonviolent offenses.
Police said Thursday that a doctor carrying SARS was arrested for allegedly breaking quarantine and starting an outbreak that infected more than 100 people in the northern Chinese city of Linhe - the first known arrest on charges of infecting others. He was to be charged under a law that has a maximum sentence of three years - and it was not immediately clear if the tougher penalties would apply to him.
The disease continued to wreak havoc on businesses throughout Asia. At a meeting in the Philippines, travel executives said SARS has caused more damage to the global airline industry than the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Iraq combined. The world's airlines expect to lose more than $10 billion this year, they said.
"At no time in the history of aviation have we ever seen declines of the magnitude that we are now seeing in the Asian region as a result of SARS," said Thomas Andrew Drysdale, regional director for the International Air Transport Association.
The number of people killed by SARS climbed to at least 602 with new deaths reported Thursday. More than 7,600 have been infected.
Taiwan on Thursday reported 26 new infections - its biggest one-day jump - bringing its total number of cases to 264, with 34 deaths. And more hospitals reported possible outbreaks, widening the crisis.
The capital's Mackay Memorial Hospital said Thursday 90 workers were quarantined after staff showed SARS-like symptoms, and a similar quarantine was imposed at a hospital in Kaohsiung, Taiwan's second largest city.
Taiwanese authorities also sought to track down 1,600 people who may have come into contact with SARS patients at Taipei's National Taiwan University Hospital, which has been overwhelmed by a surge in cases. Some 10,000 people are already ordered confined to their homes in Taiwan.
Meanwhile, the U.N. health agency lifted Canada from its list of affected areas. Ontario Health Minister Tony Clement called the decision "an absolute vindication of our public health officials."
Canada suffered 24 deaths, all in Toronto, before containing the flu-like disease.
Chinese officials are trying to keep severe acute respiratory syndrome from spreading to the countryside, home to many of China's 1.3 billion people.
The World Health Organization added five more Chinese regions to the list of areas affected by SARS - Hebei, which is near Beijing, Jilin in the northeast, Hubei and Shaanxi in central China, and the eastern province of Jiangsu. That brings the list to a total 10 regions in China, including the most heavily affected, Beijing.
Rural areas account for only a fraction of China's more than 5,100 SARS cases, said officials from the health and finance ministries. But they called for stepped-up efforts to shield rural villages, especially by keeping migrant workers from carrying the virus in from cities.
"We haven't seen a major spread into the countryside, but we can't tell whether that might change in the future," Qi Xiaoqiu, director of the Heath Ministry's Department of Disease Control, said at a news conference.
SARS has killed 271 people on China's mainland.
The Supreme Court warning says people who violate quarantines and spread the virus can be imprisoned for up to seven years, Xinhua said. It said those who cause death or serious injury by "deliberately spreading" the virus can be sentenced to prison terms of 10 years to life or might be executed.
Chinese authorities frequently threaten harsh punishments, including possible execution, during emergencies.
Most of China's 100 million migrant workers have remained at their city jobs, and health officials are monitoring 8 million migrants who have returned to their hometowns, the officials said.
Some areas are quarantining returning migrants, while teams are being organized to bring in crops so that workers don't have to return to help with the harvest, they said.
SARS has focused attention on the decrepit state of China's rural health care system, which has far fewer doctors and hospitals than cities. The government has promised $240 million in emergency aid to rural health care.
The WHO issued new recommendations for blood safety precautions, saying anyone who has been in contact with a SARS patient or been in a SARS-infection region should give blood for at least three weeks. No one is known to have contracted the disease through a contaminated blood, but WHO officials say they cannot yet rule out the possibility.
SARS fears have prompted organizers to cancel international sporting events around the world, disrupting qualifying events for next year's Olympics in Athens.
At a meeting of the games' executives in Madrid on Thursday, Olympic president Jacques Rogge said the International Olympic Committee is prepared to take "exceptional measures" against SARS if it threatens to disrupt the games. But he cautioned that "we should be very careful in not discriminating" against athletes from Asian countries.
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