'Screen travellers for killer pneumonia'

All passengers from countries affected by the outbreak of the lethal strain of pneumonia should be screened before being allowed to travel, the World Health Organisation said yesterday.

As the number of cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) rose to 1,300 worldwide, with more than 50 deaths, health authorities redoubled their efforts to contain the spread of the disease.

In a tightening of its travel advice, the WHO said travellers from the worst hit areas – Guangdong province in southern China, Hong Kong, Hanoi, Taiwan, Singapore and Toronto – should be asked whether they had had contact with a Sars case or were suffering any of the symptoms before being allowed to board aircraft.

Although no cases of Sars are known to have been transmitted during air travel, the WHO said it could be spread to passengers sitting within one or two rows of a sick person.

Officials stopped short of calling for curbs on travel to or from the affected areas, but the Rolling Stones have postponed two concerts scheduled for this weekend in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has invoked a quarantine law similar to that imposed in Singapore earlier in the week and announced all schools would close for a week from tomorrow. Anyone who has had contact with Sars is required to stay away from school or work for 10 days and attend a designated clinic for daily checks, or face a fine or jail.

Scientists believe the most likely cause of Sars is a corona virus, a cause of the common cold, which may combine with another virus to create severe disease in humans. The WHO said it believed it was a new disease which may have jumped the species barrier.