April 1, 2003	Tuesday	Muharram 28, 1424

HONG KONG, March 31: The government of Hong Kong took the extraordinary measure of placing an entire housing estate in isolation on Monday as the pneumonia virus claimed two more victims and caused new disruption across Asia.

The increasingly fraught battle to contain SARS (severe acure respiration syndrome) came as health experts warned the virus could be more contagious than first thought.

Shocked by a sudden eruption of cases at the Amoy Gardens estate in the Kowloon district, the Hong Kong authorities took the unprecedented measure of ordering the complete isolation of the housing block.

Health Secretary Yeoh Eng-kiong told reporters that two more people had died from SARS, bringing the total here to 15, and that 80 new cases had been detected, making 610 in the former British colony.

A total of 185 cases have been uncovered at Amoy Gardens, raising the possibility of a newly-mutated form of the virus that could undergo airborne transmission or survive extended periods on open surfaces.

Around 50 police officers wearing white surgical masks erected barricades around the buildings, while health workers set up a temporary clinic to give check-ups to residents.

During the isolation period, no one will be allowed to enter or leave the premises without written permission. Residents will be given three free meals a day as well as advice on cleaning and disinfecting flats.

A quarantine law invoked as part of tougher measures to contain the illness, which included the closure of all schools until April 6, also took effect on Monday.

In Singapore, a fourth person succumbed to the killer virus on Monday after visiting a local hospital and travelling to Malaysia, health officials said.

The victim, a 43-year-old Singaporean woman, was believed to have visited a patient at a Singapore government hospital before travelling to Malaysia’s Sarawak state with her family from March 15-18.

“We are unable to ascertain whether she might have transmitted (the disease) to anyone while in Sarawak, but we know that she only developed fever when she returned to Singapore on March 18,” a ministry of health spokeswoman said.

Malaysia has reported no cases of the disease, known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

The mysterious illness, an unusual form of pneumonia, has now infected some 1,700 people in 15 countries and killed at least 62 people.

It erupted in southern China, spread to Hong Kong and has been transported worldwide by airline passengers.

GERMANY: Doctors in Germany said they were treating a one-year-old child and a 60-year-old man in what could be two new cases of the deadly respiratory illness that has killed scores around the world.

Medical authorities in the southern state of Bavaria said the toddler, who had recently returned from China, was admitted showing some flu-like symptoms of SARS.

The 60-year-old man was admitted to a Munich clinic on Friday, also with some of the symptoms, after returning from Beijing and Hong Kong.

A Singaporean doctor who had treated a SARS patient, the doctor’s wife and his mother-in-law, all of whom were transiting through Frankfurt airport, were earlier this month reported to be the first cases of the disease in Europe.

Their condition has since improved, according to doctors.

LAB TESTS: The World Health Organization said on Monday that a joint effort by 11 laboratories around the world to identify the causative agent of the virus could produce results within days.

Hitoshi Oshitani, a WHO regional adviser on communicable disease told reporters in Manila research had narrowed down the possible causative agents to paramyxovirus and coronavirus.

But he warned that a cure for the illness that begins with a simple flu-like sickness was still some way away. —Agencies