Beijing, Mar 29: China, which has the largest number of atypical pneumonia cases in the world, has agreed to report them daily on a nation-wide basis and be part of the global efforts to contain the newly emerging infectious disease which has killed 53 people across the world. "They have promised to provide daily reports on a provincial basis," John Mackenzie, head of a World Health Organisation team investigating an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which has killed 34 people and infected 806 in China, told reporters here yesterday.
The WHO has issued a new travel advisory recommending the screening of air passengers departing from the four affected countries, namely Canada, China, Singapore and Vietnam on flights to another country, Mackenzie, an Australian virologist, said at the conclusion of six-day talks with China's ministry of health.
China, criticised for making little information on SARS public, has now confirmed for the first time that case studies from an outbreak of atypical pneumonia in the southern province of Guangdong, where the mystery disease which has caused world-wide alarm is believed to have originated, was SARS.
The disease, which first appeared in November 2002 in China, was only publicly reported in February this year, when the government said five people had died from a total of 305 cases of atypical pneumonia in Guangdong province. The disease has since spread to 13 countries on three continents. Bureau Report