ASIA: AN OLD FOE, MALARIA, COULD HOLD THE KEY TO SARS.

by Rahul Goswami

SINGAPORE, May 20 (IPS/GIN) -- South-east Asian countries like Singapore are hoping they have weathered the worst of the SARS outbreak, although it still looms large as a new and deadly health threat.

More than two months after cases began spreading rapidly in the region, Taiwan is still reeling from spikes in the number of cases and deaths related to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Singapore, which like other countries has been seeing a drop in the number of new infections, was hoping to be declared free of SARS on May 18. But a single new case reset the counter.

The city-state's health minister, Lim Hng Kiang, advised Singaporeans to "take this in their stride because if you ask yourself what has physically changed - nothing much, because this case has been isolated in our hospital".

But away from the region, new thinking from India is questioning both the reasons for the virulence of SARS and responses to it.

The questions challenge current knowledge about the outbreaks and the relationship between human populations and opportunistic infections. They also seek explanations for why the impact of SARS is mild in certain regions, but far more dangerous than the flu in others, with a fatality rate of 13-15 percent.