Pneumonia claims another victim in Vietnam
HANOI - A Vietnamese nurse died on
Monday from a fast-spreading pneumonia virus, bringing the
worldwide death toll from the disease to 22 with hundreds of
people sick in hospital.
The latest deaths include three in Hong Kong, officials
there said.
Doctors at the Vietnam-France Hospital, where the outbreak
in Vietnam's capital began, said a 43-year-old Vietnamese
nurse
who worked at the facility and who was one of three patients
there in critical condition, died on Monday afternoon.
The illness, called severe acute respiratory syndrome
(SARS), killed a Vietnamese nurse from the same hospital on
March 15 and a French doctor on March 19. More than 50
people
are infected with SARS in Vietnam.
All three medical staff were apparently exposed to the
virus after treating a U.S. businessman who was admitted with
flu-like symptoms at the end of February and later died in Hong
Kong where he had been taken for treatment.
The virus has spread to Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and
Germany after first showing up in southern China late last
year. Suspected cases have been reported in the United States,
Britain and Australia. In Hong Kong, 247 people are infected.
Vietnam has sought to offer reassurances that the situation
is stable.
"For the time being, the epidemic has basically been put
under control and contained," the Foreign Ministry said in a
statement on Monday.
Reuters - March 24, 2003.
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