Killer bug 'could be airborne'

ATLANTA, Georgia -- Health experts have not ruled out that a mystery illness that has sickened 1,550 people worldwide and killed 54 might be airborne.

When cases of the flu-like virus illness started appearing around the world, health officials thought it could be spread only by close, face-to-face contact, such as that which occurs between a doctor and a patient or among family members.

But its rapid spread in places like Hong Kong suggests the infectious agent causing the disease, dubbed severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) might be airborne, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said on Saturday.

Hong Kong's Director of Health Margaret Chan said the government was very concerned about an outbreak in one residential apartment, where the number of infections soared from seven to 85 in a matter of days.

A Reuters report said Chan also would not rule out that the SARS virus might be airborne, meaning the disease could spread even without face-to-face contact and much more quickly.

For weeks, Hong Kong officials said the virus is passed through droplets, such as in sneezing or coughing.

Gerberding added the infectious agent might survive on inanimate objects, such as tabletops, infecting others that way.

Already experts have said the virus could survive for three hours outside the body.

Since November, 54 people have died in 13 countries while around 1550 have been infected, most of them in mainland China and Hong Kong, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

In Hong Kong alone, 60 more patients with symptoms of the illness were hospitalized on Sunday, the biggest one day rise since authorities began tallying figures.

This means 530 people in Hong Kong are now infected with the virus. So far 13 people have died in this city of 6.9 million people.

Hong Kong health officials said Sunday that a man who came down with the illness had been aboard Dragonair flight KA901 from Beijing-Hong Kong on Wednesday and they were trying to trace the other 222 passengers and 15 crew to see if they were infected.

SARS spread to other countries from Hong Kong after an infected mainland Chinese medical professor passed the illness to seven other people in a Kowloon hotel last month.

They in turn carried the disease to Singapore, Vietnam and Canada.

And on Saturday, the disease killed Dr. Carlo Urbani, the World Health Organization doctor who was the first to identify the latest outbreak when it appeared in Vietnam.

"The potential for infecting large numbers of people is great," Gerberding told reporters Saturday.

"We may be in the early stages of what could be a larger problem. On the other hand, this is new and we have a lot of questions about the overall spread."