Mystery bug hits European countries

SUSPECTED cases of a mystery bug that has spread across three continents have been reported in four European countries while there are confirmed ones in a further two.

The condition of a 64-year-old British man, admitted to a Manchester hospital suffering from similar symptoms of an illness that has already killed nine people, is said to be improving.

Doctors used a combination of antibiotics and oxygen to stabilise the man, who took ill after returning from Hong Kong, where 90 of the near 200 cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) have been reported.

The World Health Organisation, in a statement yesterday, said: “The speed of international travel creates a risk of rapid spread to additional areas.

"Because the clinical course and epidemiological behaviour of this disease are poorly understood, WHO is calling upon national health authorities to maintain close vigilance for suspected cases.”

While the organisation said there was no need for any restriction in travel or trade, the United States has issued advice to its citizens - particularly medical professionals on working trips - to postpone unessential journeys to Hong Kong, Vietnam and south China.

A Foreign Affairs spokesman here said the department was waiting for advice from an expert group before deciding whether to issue travel warnings.

A total of 167 recent cases have been confirmed in Hong Kong, Germany, Canada, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand and Vietnam.

There are suspected cases in Taiwan, Britain, the Netherlands, Austria, Slovenia and Australia. The US Centre for Disease Control is monitoring 14 sick people who may have been exposed to the disease and is seeking the cause of their illnesses.

In southern China, an earlier outbreak of a similar pneumonia-like disease killed five people of 300 affected.

Since the cause and origin of the disease are unknown, it can kill as doctors are unsure how to treat it. In Hong Kong, doctors have had some success with a combination of anti-viral drugs and steroids.

In Canada, where there are nine confirmed cases and two deaths, doctors described their treatment as a “shotgun” approach, blasting those affecting with a range of antibiotics and oxygen. Patients have been stabilised.