The United Nations’ health agency, the World Health Organisation (WHO), has taken the rare step of advising against travel to Hong Kong and the Chinese province of Guangdong, because of the Sars outbreak.
The WHO’s infectious diseases specialist Dr David Heymann made the following statement: “People who are planning to travel to Hong Kong or Guangdong should consider postponing their travel until another time.”
The WHO has taken the drastic step because of concerns that the outbreak is taking a new form in Hong Kong. Until recently, all cases have been traced back to another case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), but there have so many cases that it has been difficult to trace them to a previous case. The WHO now suspects that an environmental factor, not the air, could carry the disease, such as water or sewage. There is still no evidence that the disease is in air conditioning systems or that it is carried in the recirculating air in a plane.
Sars is now believed to have killed 75 people and infected more than 1,700, mainly in China and Hong Kong. The advice is only intended to apply to these two destinations, however; the WHO has stated that the disease appears to be under control in Vietnam, Singapore and Canada, where there have also been several cases.
However, the Australian foreign ministry is advising travellers to postpone non-essential trips to the above countries. And, The Times reports this morning, the Hong Kong investment bank Standard Chartered has banned its staff from travelling to and from the Far East as a precaution against the disease.
