UN HEALTH chiefs yesterday said the worst of the SARS outbreak appeared to be over in Singapore, Hong Kong and Canada, while Vietnam has become the first country to contain the highly infectious disease.

The worst of the Sars outbreak appears to be over in Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada, but the deadly virus is still spreading in China, the UN’s World Health Organisation warned today.

UN health officials today said Vietnam was the first country to have successfully contained SARS, and said there was still time to stop the deadly virus spreading much further.

The World Health Organisation today declared that Vietnam the world’s first country to contain the deadly SARS bug.

A French doctor has died of severe acute respiratory syndrome, bringing the death toll from the flu-like disease in Vietnam to five – all health care workers at the same international hospital, an official said.