China, where the government has admitted the number of SARS cases in Beijing is far higher than disclosed previously, may be facing a “very big outbreak” in the provinces, the World Health Organisation said on Monday. “If you do not have the resources to deal with SARS, I think we’re going for a very big outbreak in China,” Henk Bekedam, the WHO representative in China, said. “I think it will be quite a challenge to contain SARS within China, especially those provinces which have very limited resources,” he said. “We hope that the provinces will be ready,” he said. “Otherwise you might have in all the provinces at least 100 cases, and then you can make up the arithmetic.” China, which has 31 provinces, regions and major cities, admits its health care system is poor in the countryside where 70 per cent of its 1.3 billion people live. Premier Wen Jiabao, in a speech made last week and published on Monday, said the system was so inadequate an epidemic could spread “before we know it” and “the consequences could be too dreadful to contemplate”. SARS cases have now appeared in various parts of China including the northern region of Inner Mongolia, the eastern province of Zhejiang and Guangdong and Guangxi in the South. A day after the government said Beijing had under-reported its numbers dramatically — raising the number cases tenfold to 339 — Bekedam also said the Chinese capital could have many more SARS victims in its hospitals. The WHO believed half the 402 cases the Beijing authorities classify as suspected SARS could be the real thing, he said. The disease — which has killed 209 people and infected nearly 3,900 in 25 countries — is still spreading, with the Philippines saying it may have suffered its first case, a nurse home on holiday. (Reuters) AIDS expert recommends papaya extract for SARS TOKYO: One of the scientists who pioneered research into the AIDS virus said on Monday he believed it would be years before a cure for SARS was found, but in the meantime he recommended treatment with a papaya extract. Dr Luc Montagnier, President of the Paris-based World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, and one of the team of scientists who first isolated the virus that causes AIDS, told journalists in Tokyo following a medical conference. Six more deaths in Hong Kong HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s government said on Monday the SARS virus had killed six more people in the city and infected 22 more people. The latest figures bring the local death toll from SARS to 94 and a total of 1,402 cases, a government statement said. As of Sunday, there were 88 deaths and 1,380 cases in HongKong. (Agencies)
