Russia Reports First SARS Case, 2 Die in Toronto

MOSCOW/TORONTO (Reuters) – Russia reported its first case of SARS on Wednesday on its border with hard-hit China, while two more people died from the virus in Toronto, where a school was closed and thousands quarantined on concern the illness may be spreading outside hospitals.

MOSCOW/TORONTO (Reuters) – Russia reported its first case of SARS on Wednesday on its border with hard-hit China, while two more people died from the virus in Toronto, where a school was closed and thousands quarantined on concern the illness may be spreading outside hospitals.The first confirmed case of SARS in Russia, a man living in Blagoveshchensk on the Amur river, which forms the frontier with China, came as Chinese President Hu Jintao tried to persuade the world his country could contain the disease.Hu told students in Moscow, at the start of a four-nation tour, that China had introduced strict measures to stop the spread of the deadly virus and that its economy was still expanding despite warnings SARS may knock two percentage points off GDP growth.The SARS epidemic, which started in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, has killed about 745 people and infected more than 8,200 around the world.The Russian case of severe acute respiratory syndrome was a blow to Hu’s public relations campaign.RUSSIAN DIAGNOSIS CONFIRMED“Today we officially say that, according to all laboratory tests, we confirm the diagnosis,” said Russia’s top epidemiologist, Gennady Onishchenko, of the male patient in Blagoveshchensk, who has been under observation for weeks.Russia has closed dozens of checkpoints on the border with China and Mongolia, which has also reported SARS cases, until June 4, Itar-Tass news agency said.Russia has a 2,280-mile border with China and a 2,178-mile border with Mongolia.In Toronto, officials announced the deaths of two elderly women from SARS, bringing the death toll from the virus in the Toronto area to 29. Canada is the only place outside Asia where people have died from the virus.A school in Toronto’s suburbs was closed as of Wednesday after a student showed SARS symptoms, which prompted the quarantine of 2,000 students and staff and worries that the disease could be moving into the broader community.There are now about 5,100 people under quarantine in the Toronto area after SARS resurfaced six days ago, crushing a city that thought it had beaten the disease, which originally showed up in Toronto in mid March.CHINA TO POLICE SPITTINGIn China, SARS killed four more people and infected another four — the lowest increase in new infections since the government pledged to report accurate figures more than a month ago.The Hong Kong government reported one more death from SARS and two new infections.China is scrambling to stop the disease from spreading to the countryside, where most of its 1.3 billion people live.It has deployed a high-tech van loaded with monitoring equipment to police spitting, which can spread the virus, the official Beijing Evening News said.Taiwan reported five more deaths and 22 new probable cases of SARS on Wednesday but the World Health Organization said the outbreak there appeared to be on the decline with the backlog of pending cases cleared.The country has established about 100 fever clinics in an attempt to ease overcrowding in emergency rooms as people fearing SARS seek urgent medical attention.(Source, Reuters, Wed May 28, 2003 11:06 PM ET, Jeremy Page and Lesley Wroughton)