Mystery Illness Not Going Away, Official Says
Airlines Start Screening Passengers For SARS
A regional health official predicts more people in Hong Kong are going to get sick from the mystery flulike illness that is spreading around the globe.
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How SARS WorksHong Kong's health chief also laments that the 1997 outbreak of bird flu was easier to handle -- they just went out and killed all the chickens.
But he denies that the country was slow to take decisive action against SARS.
In Singapore, officials say they have now nearly doubled the number of people under quarantine.
Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines announced Friday that a flight attendant on a flight through Frankfurt, Germany, with an infected doctor had been diagnosed with SARS.
Taiwan is now requiring arriving passengers to fill out new forms about their health.
The region's already-suffering travel industry is concerned about more lost business, with the war in Iraq compounding its problems.
The World Health Organization says airlines should be on the lookout for possible SARS victims among people flying out of hard-hit places. Officials say people exposed to the disease should be barred from planes.
Health authorities are trying to find ways to identify suspected cases earlier.
More than 50 suspected cases are under investigation in the United States, most of which are in people who recently traveled to Asia.
Dr. Jim Hughes, director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases, said Thursday that although the size of the outbreak is significant, it seems like aggressive action can control the disease's transmission.
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