LEAD: WHO issues travel advisory for Taipei, 2 other areas

Asian Economic News, May 13, 2003

GENEVA, May 8 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH ADVISORY ISSUED, CLARIFYING TAIPEI SITUATION)

The World Health Organization on Thursday announced travel advisories against non-essential travel to Taipei, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Tianjin Province in China because of the SARS epidemic, raising the number areas targeted from four to seven.

The organization has already issued travel advisories for Hong Kong, Beijing and Guangdong and Shanxi provinces in China, urging travelers to consider postponing non-essential trips to these areas hit hardest by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

The WHO said the travel advice was based on consideration of the magnitude of the outbreaks in the regions, including both the number of prevalent cases and the daily number of new cases.

The extent of local chains of transmission as well as the potential for spread beyond these areas were also major factors in the WHO's decision.

On Hong Kong, the U.N. health agency acknowledged that the number of new infections there has been decreasing and that the peak of infections has passed. But it decided to keep the former British colony on the advisory list as there continue to be new deaths and infections.

According to the WHO's latest data Wednesday, there was a cumulative total of 6,903 reported SARS infections worldwide, including ''probable'' cases. Among them, 495 have died while 2,885 have recovered or been discharged by health authorities.