WHO: SARS has spread on only four airline flights BEIJING (AP) =97 The World Health Organization says only 16 of the more than= =20 7,800 people infected worldwide with SARS got the disease while aboard an=20 airplane and that all of those cases came before airlines began screening=20 passengers for symptoms. The findings were announced at the WHO's annual=20 assembly in Geneva, which drew health chiefs from around the globe. All=20 were screened for SARS symptoms by rubber-gloved nurses in lab coats before= =20 meetings got under way Monday. The results could be welcome news for the=20 world's air carriers, which have suffered a deep slump in traffic,=20 especially in Asia, while the highly contagious disease spread to more than= =20 two dozen countries and killed at least 643 people since surfacing in=20 southern China in November. WHO's global coordinator for anti-SARS efforts, Mike Ryan, said airport=20 screening of passengers for fevers and other symptoms has drastically=20 reduced the danger of contracting SARS while on a plane. Ryan said the=20 airline transmission of SARS should not occur anymore. "There is always a=20 risk if a SARS patient gets on a plane, but the idea is to prevent them=20 from getting on the plane in the first place," he said. "The risk, we=20 believe, has been reduced now to infinitesimally low levels because of=20 screening and surveillance." WHO Director-General Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland appealed to governments=20 worldwide to work closer together in the fight against SARS. "A secure,=20 healthy future for us all depends on cooperation across borders and between= =20 institutions," Brundtland told the opening session of the 10-day meeting.=20 "We can no longer rely on national efforts alone to implement the scaled-up= =20 system of global alert and response that the world now needs." The=20 International Air Transport Association says SARS has caused more damage to= =20 the global airline industry than the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the war= =20 in Iraq combined. The air industry expects a loss of $10 billion this year,= =20 it said. Nowhere has the tourism industry been hurt more than in Asia, even in=20 nations where the threat is relatively small. Thailand's government decided= =20 Monday to buy insurance coverage for foreign tourists that would pay=20 $100,000 apiece if they died from SARS contracted while visiting Thailand.= =20 Thailand has reported just two deaths from SARS, both people who acquired=20 the disease abroad. In another effort to boost travel, China is reducing=20 airport landing fees by 20%. Several other countries have already done the= =20 same. In Geneva, WHO medical experts said all of the 16 cases of people=20 contracting SARS while aboard a plane took place on four flights and before= =20 airlines adopted tough screening measures. "There were 35 flights on which= =20 SARS-infected people who were symptomatic with disease traveled," said Dr.= =20 David Heymann, WHO's chief of communicable diseases. "We know, however,=20 that on only four of those planes was there actually passage of the=20 disease." Of those, 14 were passengers sitting within four seats of the=20 SARS patient and two were flight attendants, Ryan said. "Proximity is a=20 huge part of this picture. The vast majority have been within two rows in=20 front or two rows behind. Not sharing toilets, not walking up and down the= =20 aisle, not sitting in the waiting area =97 none of those issues seem to be= =20 associated," Ryan said. All 16 cases occurred before March 23, four days=20 before the U.N. health agency recommended that airlines screen passengers=20 for signs of SARS and advised that suspected cases not be allowed to=20 travel. SARS is not contagious unless symptoms are showing, experts say. In other SARS developments: =97 Beijing's public schools will reopen this week amid strict anti-SARS=20 measures.Students taking university entrance exams will be the first to go= =20 back to class Thursday, said Zhu Shanlu, a member of the city's ruling=20 Communist Party. He said classes for younger students would resume "in=20 batches." Beijing closed its public schools April 24, sending home 1.7=20 million students. =97 In Taiwan, officials reported four new SARS deaths and 39 new SARS cases= =20 Tuesday, and a top health official warned of more infections in the south,= =20 where another hospital has come down with dozens of suspected cases. In Hong Kong, a 4-month-old girl is believed to have caught SARS from her=20 grandfather, who earlier spread the disease to four other family members,=20 health officials said Tuesday. The baby was the only new SARS case in Hong= =20 Kong on Monday. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.caribbeanfloral.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************