SARS scare heightened by uncontacted foreign passengers
Health authorities in Taiwan are urgently trying to track down five foreign passengers on a flight taken by a man later diagnosed with SARS.
Deputy director of the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Shih Wen-yi, said 13 Taiwanese who sat near the 44-year-old researcher on a flight from Singapore have been told to monitor themselves closely for signs of fever.
Five foreigners also occupying seats near the Taiwanese man, three US nationals, one Japanese and one Singaporean, have so far not been contacted.
The 13 Taiwanese included five colleagues of the victim who were at a seminar with him in Singapore in early December.
All 18 passengers had been on board China Airlines flight CI-662 from Singapore to Taipei on Dec 10.
Taiwan yesterday confirmed the first SARS case in five months, causing alarm across the region.
SARS triggered a worldwide health crisis after emerging in China's southern Guangdong province in November last year, killing 774 people.
