Asian Airports Screen Passengers for Flu-like Symptoms

HONGKONG -- Asian airports were screening passengers for flu-like symptoms on Monday after the World Health Organization said airline travelers could be spreading a mysterious illness that has killed at least nine people and infected hundreds in several countries.

Some fearful passengers wore surgical masks or covered their faces in the hope of warding off infection.

In a rare emergency warning, Geneva-based WHO declared 'a worldwide health threat'. The outbreak was first reported in Asia and cases have now also been reported in Europe and North America.

Doctors know little about the illness, including whether one or several strains of disease is to blame.

Some tourists in Hongkong were seen wearing surgical masks as they left the airport, and travellers arriving at the international airport in Guangzhou, China, were also wearing masks.

'Most are from Taiwan,' said a spokeswoman for the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou, the commercial centre of China's wealthy Guangdong province. 'Some are also getting off the plane and simply covering their mouths with scarves.'

Hongkong media reported the price of masks was rising due to heightened demand -- echoing a spike in the price of vinegar last month when people were burning it in the belief it would act like a disinfectant.

In Hongkong, where one victim died last week in a hospital and 42 hospital workers have fallen ill with pneumonia, the biggest carrier Cathay Pacific Airways ordered ground staff to turn away passengers who appeared sick.

'It is company policy not to allow any passenger to board an aircraft who is known to be suffering from an actively infectious disease,' said Cathay's medical officer, Dr John Merritt.

In Japan, authorities warned airport quarantine stations to be alert for travellers bringing home the mysterious respiratory illness.

Health Ministry official Hiroshi Kobayashi said all suspected cases of the illness should be reported to the central government.

Separately, the Japanese Foreign Ministry announced three health officials had gone to Vietnam to help authorities there cope with the emergency, in which one hospital nurse has died and at least 31 people have fallen sick.

The Vietnamese nurse died in Hanoi on Saturday, becoming the latest victim. She is believed to have caught pneumonia in a hospital where several staff were sickened after an American businessman from Shanghai was admitted with the disease.

The businessman, who was not identified, reported flu-like symptoms during a two-day stay in Hongkong before flying to Hanoi but it is not certain where he caught the disease, said Mr Jimmy Lee, a spokesman of Hong Kong's Health Department.

The Hanoi French Hospital was closed and the American man was flown last week to Hongkong, where he died in a hospital. Most of the Hongkong pneumonia cases, however, have been from workers in a different hospital well across town.

Philippine health authorities said on Monday they are randomly sampling pneumonia patients, and the quarantine bureau is monitoring international travellers to check on possible cases of the disease.

Philippine Health Undersecretary Antonio Lopez also said in a radio interview on Monday that officials were monitoring a Filipino man who may have been in contact with someone sickened by the mysterious flu-like illness while he was in Vietnam.

Hongkong travel agents specialising in package tours for Southeast Asians have reported a 70 to 80 per cent drop in bookings compared to the same period last year due to pneumonia fears, although there have not yet been any cancellations, an industry official said on Monday.

'This is a worldwide issue, and it will affect tourism globally, not just in Hongkong,' said Joseph Tung, executive director of the Hong Kong Travel Industry Council.

Despite calls by some countries for travellers to avoid areas where the disease has been detected, Hongkong authorities said the city was still a healthy place to visit and that health officials are doing what they could to stop the disease from spreading.

'Hongkong is still a safe place,' said Dr Yeoh Eng Kiong, Hongkong's secretary for health, food and welfare.

Hongkong airline Dragonair said on Monday that an airport worker was suspected to have caught pneumonia.

The worker, employed by a ground-handling subsidiary company, was in a hospital on Monday, according to a Dragonair spokesman who would not say when the worker became ill or provide any other details.

Two people died early this month in Canada, shortly after arriving from Hongkong, and four of their relatives were hospitalised.

An earlier outbreak of atypical pneumonia in China's Guangdong province killed five people and sickened about 300. Although health officials say the outbreaks appear similar they are not certain what has made the people ill, or if it could be more than one disease strain. -- AP