Five more people have died in Hong Kong after contracting the killer SARS virus and 42 new cases have been confirmed, a government health official said today.
The new deaths brought the death toll from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in the territory to 40 with 1,150 cases, deputy director of health Lam Ping-yan told reporters.
Authorities do not include in their figures an American national who was pronounced dead on arrival at a Hong Kong hospital Wednesday after being transferred from mainland China.
The new victims were aged between 40 and 66. Only one of them had a history of chronic illness, something which medical experts had previously thought increased the risk of death from the pneumonia-like illness.
Among the new cases, nine were medical workers and five were from the Amoy Gardens estate, one of the epicentres of the SARS outbreak.
The virus has killed more than 120 people worldwide and infected more than 3,100.
The flu-like disease, which originated in southern China, hit Hong Kong in March and has been spread around the world by air travellers.
AFP