travelnews: Travel Alert/SARS

[Carolyn Wooley <cwooley@oregon.uoregon.edu>]

The following message has been received from one of our contract travel
agencies.

WHO EXTENDS SARS TRAVEL ADVISORY TO BEIJING AND SHANXI PROVINCE, CHINA,
AND TO TORONTO, CANADA

As a result of ongoing assessments as to the nature of outbreaks of severe
acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Beijing and Shanxi Province, China,
and in Toronto, Canada, the World Health Organization (WHO) is now
recommending, as a measure of precaution, that persons planning to travel
to these destinations consider postponing all but essential travel. This
temporary advice, which is an extension of travel advice previously issued
for Guangdong Province and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China,
will be reassessed in three weeks' time. 
Information from the Chinese government about the magnitude of the SARS
outbreaks in Beijing and Shanxi Province has been carefully reviewed by
WHO. This assessment has considered the magnitude of the outbreak,
including both the number of prevalent cases and the daily number of new
cases, the extent of local chains of transmission, and evidence that
travellers are becoming infected while in one area and then subsequently
exporting the disease elsewhere. On the basis of this assessment, WHO is
extending its 2 April travel advice to include Beijing and Shanxi
Province.
Using the same criteria, WHO has assessed the SARS situation in Toronto,
Canada. The outbreak in this area has continued to grow in magnitude and
has affected groups outside the initial risk groups of hospital workers,
families, visitors and other close person-to-person contacts. In addition,
a small number of persons with SARS, now in other countries in the world,
appear to have acquired the infection while in Toronto. On the basis of
this information, WHO is also including Toronto in the extension of its
SARS-related travel advice.
The illness, whose symptoms include high fever, a dry cough and difficulty
in breathing, has killed more than 250 people around the world. Most
patients survive, but health officials say the mortality rate has risen
from four percent to 5.9 percent and there is no known cure.
For more information visit WHO's Web site at www.who.int/en/. 


----------------------------------------------------------------------
To view all TRAVELNEWS messages posted since October 31, 2001 visit our
archive at http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~travel/travelnews/index.html