Cases of SARS in Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada's Toronto and Vietnam appear to have peaked, but China continues to see substantial numbers of new cases, the World Health Organisation said today.
"In most countries now they've had one or two peaks and they're [the number of cases] on the way down. We believe that now they're on the way down and they will stay down in these countries," Mr David Heymann of the WHO said.
The respiratory illness has now killed over 300 people, most of them in China and its special administrative region of Hong Kong.
"We are receiving more and more reports now of cases in China, and it doesn't appear that it's peaked in China yet," said Mr Heymann. "We're very satisfied with what China is giving us, but we know that there's more.
"It's not being hidden," he stressed, "it's just that they haven't yet been able to come to grips with all the different reports".
China has been worst affected, with over 3,100 people infected by SARS and 139 deaths. Hong Kong is second with more than 1,500 cases and 138 deaths.
Like mainland China, Taiwan has yet to see its SARS cases start sliding down the "bell-shaped curve" that typifies the chart of epidemics, Mr Heymann said.
Taiwan has reported 55 cases of the disease and announced its first SARS-related death Sunday.
AFP