The World Health Organisation issued an emergency global alert, warning that a mysterious, sometimes fatal pneumonia-like illness posed a worldwide threat after spreading from Asia to Europe and North America. At least 300 cases of respiratory illness have been found outside China. Ten people have died. Several hundred other cases and five deaths have been reported in Guangdong, China. The Guangdong outbreak which began in November still continues. In America, US officials are investigating 13 people who have symptoms consistent with the disease, dubbed Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and who recently returned from Asia. In most cases, the disease does not appear to spread casually — from sitting next to a sick person on an airplane, for example. Most cases have been among family members and hospital workers. Officials were optimistic that containment efforts were working, and some victims were starting to recover. But in addition to jumping from one person to another, the SARS pathogen has resisted antibiotics and, so far, eluded identification, although scientists have found evidence of paramyxovirus. Paramyxoviruses cause diseases from mild to exotic and deadly. This family of viruses also causes measles and mumps. If a paramyxovirus is causing the outbreak, it is likely to be an unidentified one, possibly one that has jumped from animals to people for the first time, officials said. (LATWP)
