Hong Kong ravaged by Sars virus

Hong Kong reported yesterday seven more deaths from a flu-like respiratory virus, the highest daily toll in the territory since the start of the outbreak, as the virulent disease sapped the strength of Asian economies.

The virus, which is new to science and has no known cure, has been carried by air travellers to about 20 countries in the past six weeks, killing 144 people and infecting over 3,300 worldwide.

But in signs of progress in the fight against the illness, a Canadian laboratory said it had cracked the genetic sequence behind the virus and a German firm began distributing what it said was the first commercial test for the infection.

Mainland China, the epicentre of the disease, reported four more deaths and 74 new cases, the World Health Organisation (Who) said yesterday. Official numbers put the death toll there at 64, with 1,418 infected cases.

Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa told his boss, Chinese President Hu Jintao, in Shenzhen city that the virus had yet to be "brought under effective control".

President Hu's low-profile visit to southern Guangdong province at the weekend was the strongest indication yet of how seriously the Chinese leadership viewed the health crisis.

Forty-seven people have now died from the disease in Hong Kong and 1,190 have been infected.

The virus causing Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars), which often deteriorates into pneumonia, first showed up in Guangdong last November.

In a weekend statement released one month after its first alert on the disease, the Who warned that Sars could become a global epidemic.

"If the Sars maintains its present pathogenicity and transmissibility, Sars could become the first severe new disease of the 21st century with global epidemic potential," David Heymann, the agency's executive director of communicable diseases, wrote on the Who website.

The virus has hit hospital staff hardest, putting healthcare systems under strain. Health officials say they are not sure how the virus spreads, although close contact with an infected person appears the main method of transmission.

Its impact on business has been merciless. The Who website notes the disease has already caused an estimated $30 billion in losses, which could rapidly mount in a globalised economy.

The illness has crippled tourism in Asia and forced airlines to cut flights sharply. Economists say the longer the crisis lasts, the deeper it will eat into the region's economies and it could push some, including Hong Kong, back into recession.

Asia's fourth-largest carrier, Cathay Pacific Airways, has said it would not rule out grounding its entire passenger fleet next month if passenger numbers continued to fall.

A Canadian laboratory said it had broken the genetic sequence behind the Sars virus. The Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre in British Columbia said this could help speed development of a reliable diagnostic test and eventually an effective vaccine.

Canada, which has the third-largest number of Sars cases, said its death toll had risen to 13 with more than 270 probable or suspected cases of infection. Thousands have been quarantined.

In Germany, a biotech company, Hamburg-based Artus GmbH, began distributing on Monday what it said was the first commercial test for the virus.

"We have had a wave of demand... we are providing it free of charge. It is an urgent medical need," Artus's marketing director Kay Koerner told Reuters. The test produces results in two hours, its makers say, and Koerner said Artus had already sent kits to a number of Asian countries.

Singapore, which has the world's fourth-highest number of cases, with 158 confirmed infections and 72 suspected, revealed seven more confirmed cases yesterday. Twelve people are believed to have died from the illness, and 84 have recovered.