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Russia takes emergency action to block arrival of SARS from China
May 8, 2003
AFP

Russia diagnosed its first case of SARS on Thursday and took emergency steps to prevent the killer epidemic spilling over from China, with a threatened ban on flights and restrictions across the vast land border.

After weeks of low-scale response, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov convened a special cabinet meeting to discuss a series of measures to seal off the menace and put health services on full alert.

"Our responsibility is safeguard the population from this threat, which requires a series of additional measures," Interfax news agency reported Kasyanov as telling the meeting.

Only border crossings where medical checks can be implemented to screen out people carrying the disease will remain open, the government press service told Interfax.

Military doctors will be drafted to ensure tight controls of all arrivals from areas subject to travel warnings from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which include Hong Kong, parts of China and the Taiwanese capital Taipei, officials added.

The government initiative came as health officials admitted that a 25-year-old Russian man who has been hospitalised near the Chinese border almost certainly represented the first case of atypical pneumonia in Russia.

The condition of Denis Soynikov, 25, in hospital in the town of Blagoveshchensk, was described as "serious but stable". Although conclusive laboratory tests still were not available, he has been diagnosed with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

So far there have been more than 25 suspected cases of SARS in Russia, which shares a border of thousands of kilometres (miles) with China, the country worst affected by the disease.

The Russian Civil Aviation Authority sent a telegramme to all airlines which fly to China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, ordering them to stop selling passenger flights, air freight and postal deliveries to those destinations.

The telegramme, signed by Deputy Transport Minister Alexander Neradko, who is head of the civil aviation authority, told the airlines to prepare for a possible suspension of air services to China, the Russian flag carrier Aeroflot said.

Aeroflot said it would stop selling flights to China although its deputy general director, Lev Koshyalov, told nterfax late on Thursday that government officials had given permission for ticket sales to continue.

Four Russian carriers offer regular services to China -- Aeroflot, KrasAir, Dalavia and Eastline, according to the civil aviation authority. It was unable to specify which Chinese carriers fly to Russia.

The government decision was taken in connection with "the spread of the atypical pneumonia epidemic in China, to prevent the entry of infected passengers, baggage, freight and mail into Russian territory", Interfax quoted the telegramme as saying.

Russia's chief medical officer said on Tuesday that the government was considering closing the border with China altogether.

Already authorities in the Amur river region and Khabarovsk area have virtually closed their border with China, only allowing Chinese and Russian citizens to return home.

And on Thursday the Primorye maritime region announced a ban on visa-free travel to and from China for a month, shutting four out of five road checkpoints and all three rail crossing-points.

Russia and China share a gigantic 4,000 kilometre (2,500-mile) common frontier and Russian health authorities have warned about the ease with which SARS could spread through cross-border travel.

There are 24 border posts for cars, trains and boats between Russia and China. From Primorye alone, 400,000 Russians visit China every year, with 150,000 Chinese going in the opposite direction.

China, the likely origin of the SARS virus, is also the flu-like disease's main victim. The country's death toll rose to 224 on Thursday, out of a nationwide total of 4,698 infections.

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