WHO removes Singapore from list of SARS countries

The World Health Organisation removed Singapore from its map of SARS hot zones while researchers in the US said they may be able to develop a vaccine for the disease in three years.

While the spread of the disease appears to have slowed in Asia, in Canada’s largest city, Toronto, health authorities reported another SARS death and 10 more cases yesterday.

The global death toll today was at least 756 with more than 8,300 people sickened, the majority in Asia.

Officials in Hong Kong said they may offer cash rewards to people who turn in neighbours who spit or litter in an effort to improve hygiene, after government economists predicted the SARS outbreak would cut the territory’s economic growth in half, to 1.5%.

The World Health Organisation removed Singapore from its list of countries affected by the virus, saying it was 20 days – twice the virus’s maximum incubation period – since the last locally acquired case was placed in isolation.

“From the start, Singapore’s handling of its SARS outbreak has been exemplary,” said Dr David Heymann, Executive Director for Communicable Diseases at WHO. “This is an inspiring victory that should make all of us optimistic that SARS can be contained everywhere.”

Still, Singapore’s incoming health minister urged vigilance to avoid a Toronto-style relapse.

“I think Toronto’s new outbreak is a great reminder to everyone,” Khaw Boon Wan told reporters. “I’m reading reports from Toronto saying that the reason for this new outbreak is that they let their guard down too soon.”

Toronto’s cluster of new cases emerged last week in a harsh blow to a health care system that appeared to have brought an initial SARS outbreak in March and April under control. Health officials have told more than 7,800 people to quarantine themselves because of possible exposure.

A 57-year-old man who died on Thursday raised the overall death toll to 30 in Toronto, epicentre of the biggest outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome outside of Asia.

The number of probable SARS cases increased to 43 from 33 the day before, while 149 people with symptoms of the illness remained under investigation, said Dr Colin D’Cunha, the Ontario commissioner of public health.

China announced yesterday that it will relax SARS-related travel restrictions and allow limited domestic tourism to resume in June and group tours from overseas to resume in July. SARS has killed 328 people on China’s mainland and infected more than 5,300.

In Taiwan, where SARS struck later than in other Asian locations, officials reported nine new cases today, but no new deaths for the third day in a row.

US scientists said they have fast-tracked work on a vaccine for SARS and hope to have one in three years – far less than the normal 15-20 years it has taken to create vaccines for other diseases in the past.

Dr Gary Nabel, chief of the Vaccine Research Centre at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that if things go according to plan, scientists will finish all the basic lab work, create the vaccine and test it in animals in just one year.

They will then spend two more trying it out on people to make sure it works, then turn the results over to the US Food and Drug Administration for approval.