Taiwan, Singapore Health Officials Trying To Contain Another Round

It's an equation that could spell another outbreak of the deadly SARS virus, but government and airline officials in Taiwan are moving quickly to keep that from happening.

Two people exposed to the SARS virus, which killed more than 800 worldwide after it burst upon the world stage last winter, boarded a commercial flight for the United States before they knew they might have been infected. That could have exposed the other passengers on board the flight were exposed as well.

But so far, so good, according to health experts in Taipei and Singapore. "It doesn't look like the start of a new outbreak," said World Health Organization spokeswoman Maria Cheng Thursday. "We're very much hoping that it's an isolated event." To make sure, 100 people have been quarantined so far. They were isolated after a 44-year old military scientist was diagnosed with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in Taiwan. The Taiwanese researcher, identified only as Lt. Col. Chan, was himself exposed to the potentially fatal illness while disinfecting his lab in the suburbs of Taipei. He flew to Singapore two days later.

While the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta (GA) says there's no cause for concern, there are five "wild cards" -- three Americans, one Japanese and a Singaporean who flew to from Singapore to Taiwan with the mnilitary researcher Dec. 10. So far, they've not been found anywhere. If they indeed contracted the virus and then flew elsewhere, they could have exposed everyone with whom they came in contact to the virus.

"We don't know where they are, whether they're in Taiwan or elsewhere," said Shih Wen-yi, a spokesman for Taiwan's Center for Disease Control.

But it looks a lot like the way SARS first earlier this year. In February, a 64-year old Chinese doctor who flew from his hometown on the mainland to Hong Kong for a wedding. He went through the crowded airport on his way to a local hotel before he died. Other guests on the same hotel floor were infected. One carried it to Singapore, one to Vietnam, and one to Toronto. Those areas later became hotbeds of SARS infection.

The SARS outbreak earlier this year decimated the airline industry in the Pacific and further depressed markets in the rest of the world, already reeling from the 9/11 attacks.

FMI: www.who.int