China will send medical teams across the vast country in an attempt to contain the rapidly spreading SARS epidemic as at least eight more deaths were reported today in mainland China and Hong Kong.
Both Malaysia and the Philippines also reported suspected new deaths from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which has killed more than 230 and infected some 4,000 worldwide since it first emerged in southern China in November.
The epidemic continued to cause huge disruption to travel and trade in Asia, and analysts blamed SARS for a 2.24 per cent fall in share prices on the region's biggest market in Tokyo.
Southeast Asian health ministers, meanwhile, said they would gather in Kuala Lumpur Saturday for crisis talks to combat the spread of the virus ahead of a full summit of regional leaders in Bangkok on April 29.
China, the country hardest hit by SARS, reported three more deaths from the disease as well as more than 300 new confirmed or suspected cases. The country has now recorded 97 deaths, 2,158 cases and a further 918 suspected cases.
Most worryingly the figures show the disease is spreading across the country - from Sichuan province in the southwest to Liaoning in the northeast - and is emerging in poor rural areas ill-equipped to cope.
Since President Hu Jintao stepped in last week and ordered officials to stop covering up the scale of the crisis, 19 of China's 31 provinces and municipalities have acknowledged incidence of the disease.
In an effort to prevent the virus from infecting impoverished areas, China Tuesday banned tour groups from travelling to rural and remote areas, state press said.
"Tour groups are urged to keep away from rural and remote areas in China," Xinhua news agency quoted China National Tourism Administration deputy-director Sun Gang as saying.
"Large tour groups, cross-regional tours and tours to and from areas struck by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome are prohibited."
China's state media also said the cabinet would send prevention and treatment monitoring teams to affected areas. The move came after the World Health Organisation (WHO) voiced fears that rural areas would not be able to cope and that many more cases should be expected.
WHO medical officer Jeff McFarland said while the reporting system was now working better, it was imperative China also established the onset of the disease in patients to determine where they had been since being infected.
"This is the data that we need to get a better sense of the magnitude of the epidemic," he told AFP as WHO officials in Geneva hinted it could expand an existing advisory warning against travel to southern China, to include other parts of the country.
The new urgency to deal with SARS follows strong criticism from around the world about the way China has handled the epidemic.
AFP