China traveller home with suspected Sars

By MARTIN JOHNSTON and NZPA

A woman returned from China is being held in an isolation room at Hawkes Bay Hospital with the suspected Sars virus.

A hospital spokeswoman said last night that the woman, who had requested anonymity, was in a stable condition after being admitted on Tuesday. She had a high fever and a dry cough.

The woman was in a group of 35 who returned on Saturday from a three-week tour of China.

Hastings travel agent Garry Mulvanah, of Twin City Harvey World Travel, said she was a member of a tour party he and his wife, Marie, led.

The group had visited Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai and Guilin and cruised for three days on the Yangtze River.

The global total of Sars cases is now more than 4200, the World Health Organisation says. More than 250 have died.

The first New Zealander with a confirmed case of Sars remains in hospital in the Chinese city of Xi'an.

The condition of the 39-year-old, who lives in Britain and was on an eight-day tour of China, was improving, said a New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Brad Tattersfield.

"His temperature has come down and he's stabilising."

The Education Ministry yesterday told schools not to quarantine or exclude students returning from Sars-affected countries.

Several schools warned overseas students against returning home to those countries for the holidays. Some said they would impose a 10-day stand-down period for those who did go home.

Ministry national operations manager Jim Matheson said current knowledge indicated there was no basis for excluding or quarantining people without symptoms.

"Educational institutions also need to be aware that it is the responsibility of the health authorities to decide whether isolation procedures should be put in place."

Students returning to New Zealand would be screened at airports.

"If a student is generally well, any risk of catching the disease is minimal."

Latest information about Sars indicated it was not contagious during the incubation period and early stages

Most people had been infected after contact with people already sick with Sars, Mr Matheson said. It was unknown if a person remained infectious after recovering.

St Kentigern College in East Auckland has asked that students who have visited "at-risk" countries be kept at home for the virus' 10-day incubation period.

But principal Warren Peat said last night: "If a parent wishes to have their child return to school before that and is able to demonstrate they haven't been in contact with and are not showing symptoms or signs of [Sars] and are well, I see no reason why they should have to stay at home."

In Canada, where Toronto is suffering unwelcome attention as a Sars hot-spot, there is anger over a WHO travel warning.

The WHO now advises against non-essential travel to Toronto, Beijing and the central Chinese province of Shanxi.

Previously only China's southern Guangdong province and Hong Kong were on the list, although New Zealand warns against non-essential travel to Hong Kong and all of mainland China.

Canada's federal Health Minister rejected the WHO advisory, "based on the first-hand knowledge that we have of the situation in Toronto".