China 'under-reporting' Sars

China 'under-reporting' Sars

The Chinese mainland is the worst affected region

The World Health Organisation has accused China of failing to report the full extent of the Sars (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus.

A team of WHO officials investigating the spread of the disease in the Chinese capital, Beijing, said the city could have up to 200 cases, instead of the 37 reported officially.

The accusation comes after weeks of speculation that the Chinese Government has been covering up the scale of the outbreak.

The WHO has already criticised China for its reluctance to release information on the pneumonia-like disease.

On Tuesday the WHO team was finally given clearance to visit two military hospitals in Beijing, after repeated demands for access following claims by a senior Chinese doctor that there were many more Sars victims in the hospitals than the authorities were admitting.

At a press conference after the hospital visit, WHO representative Henk Bekedam said the information obtained by the team "corresponds to rumours" about additional unreported cases.

But the health experts would not reveal how many Sars patients were in the hospitals, saying they were barred from talking further about their visit without permission from the Chinese authorities.

The investigators said they blamed the huge discrepancy between actual and reported Sars data on a "reporting problem" in the Chinese system, because military figures were not being passed on to municipal authorities.

"This is a clear problem which we have identified, which we have recommended that it be changed," said virologist Wolfgang Preiser, who was also part of the WHO team.

In recent days the Chinese authorities have shown an increasing willingness to acknowledge the severity of the disease.

On Tuesday, China's president Hu Jintao said he was "very worried" by the pneumonia-like virus, and the day before Prime Minister Wen Jiabao described the situation as "grave".

The authorities have launched a huge clean-up operation, airlines have been given strict guidelines and the state-run media has run many articles covering the Sars outbreak.

Young affected

The Sars virus first emerged in China in November, and while the virus has since spread throughout the world, the Chinese mainland is still the worst affected region.

On Wednesday, another person died and 13 more were infected, bringing the total death toll in mainland China to 65 and the total number of cases to 1,445.

In total there have been more than 3,000 cases of Sars - most in South East Asia - and more than 140 people have died.

Five more Sars patients died in Hong Kong on Wednesday, bringing the death toll in the territory to 61 - and making it the second most affected region after the Chinese mainland.

How Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome has spread around the world

SARS guide

Three of the recent victims were previously healthy women in their 30s - one of whom underwent an emergency caesarean before her death to save her child.

Simon Parry, news editor of the South China Morning Post, told the BBC: "One thing that is worrying people is that the victims seem to be getting increasingly young."

There was further worrying news on Wednesday, when a Hong Kong doctor said that three babies born prematurely because their mothers were suffering from Sars were now showing signs of the illness themselves.

Other Asian regions are also suffering. Indonesia - which only announced its first probable case on Friday - now has three suspected and one probable case of Sars, the health ministry said Wednesday.

In Taiwan, the authorities are offering cash rewards for information leading to the discovery of new Sars cases.

Although Singapore's primary schools have now reopened after a three-week closure, the city state has also seen two more fatalities.

And Malaysia now says that in addition to one confirmed death so far, two other men who have died in recent days may have been Sars victims too.