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| North America, Singapore on high SARS alert |
| CCTV.COM 2003-04-23 13:04:34 |
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US health officials were on Tuesday continuing efforts to keep Americans from bringing the SARS virus with them from Canada. As the disease spreads across the world, human life is not the only casualty. Economies are also suffering. The Singaporean government has warned that SARS will cost Singapore huge economic losses and cause its biggest crisis in 40 years.
The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention says advisories are being issued to air travelers coming into the US from Toronto which has been a center for the respiratory disease's spread in Canada. Fourteen people have died there. The director of the center said she expected warnings to be distributed later at land border crossings as well.
Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,said, "Specifically with respect to Toronto, we are working with the Health Canada officials to provide an alert to travelers coming into the country who have been in the Toronto area."
Meanwhile, a team of scientists from the Center for Disease Control is in Toronto at the request of Health Canada to try and find out why health workers are getting infected with SARS despite using high－level infection control measures.
As the disease spreads across the world, human life is not the only casualty. Economies are also suffering. Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong warned that SARS will cost Singapore an estimated 1.5 billion Singaporean dollars, or 840 million US dollars.
Goh Ghok Tong said, "If we lose control in this fight against SARS, SARS will knock you backward, SARS can even kill you. But I can tell you SARS will kill the economy, and then all of us will be killed by a collapsing economy."
The Singaporean government has warned that this is the biggest crisis in 40 years and has shaved 1.5 percent from the country's gross domestic product. Among the reported 184 SARS cases in Singapore, 16 have died.
Experts from the World Health Organization, the US Centers for Disease Control, the Pan－American Health Organization, Canada and Britain are due to gather next week to share accumulated knowledge on the new disease and ideas on how to better contain its spread.
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Editor: Yang Feiyang CCTV.com
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