Sars Fear Hits Russia

Russia today reported its first Sars case, as Moscow ordered airlines to stop taking bookings to China and other areas at the centre of the global outbreak.

Russia's civil aviation service said it had told all carriers to prepare for a complete ban on flights to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as the first "almost certain" case of the killer virus was reported in a hospital in the country's far east, close to the Chinese border.

The aviation authority's press service said that no new tickets to the banned regions would be sold. For now, however, those already holding tickets will be able to fly. A complete cancellation of flights would require an order by Russia's chief epidemiologist, Gennady Onishchenko, and cabinet approval.

Mr Onishchenko was quoted in the Gazeta daily as saying that the first "almost certain" Sars case had been detected in the eastern town of Blagoveshchensk.

The condition of Denis Soynikov, 25, who has been in hospital since May 1, was "grave", said Mr Onishchenko, adding: "The results of diagnostic tests indicate that it is probably an atypical pneumonia."

However, the report was played down by Russia's state news agency Interfax. A revised statement by a health ministry spokesman said that Mr Soynikov had all the symptoms of the infection but the virus had not been isolated. Definitive results were expected later today.

There have been 20 suspected cases in Russia, but so far none has been confirmed as Sars despite the fact that the country shares a long border with China, the country worst affected by the disease.

In a sign of growing fears over the spread of the disease, the authorities in the far eastern Amor river region partially closed the border with China, only allowing Chinese and Russian citizens to return home. Similar measures were recently introduced in the Blagoveshchensk area.

On Tuesday, ministers warned that they might soon examine "the possibility of a total closure of the border" with China.

Meanwhile, the global death toll from Sars passed 500 after China reported five more deaths. The health ministry added that 146 more people had been infected, taking the total number of cases to 4,698 with the death toll now reaching 224.

The latest figures were issued as the World Health Organisation (WHO) extended its Sars-related travel warning to Taipei, in Taiwan, as well as the mainland Chinese city of Tianjin and the province of Inner Mongolia.

The official Xinhua News Agency also reported that more than 120 officials accused of negligence in responding to China's Sars outbreak had been fired or punished in the past month.