HONG KONG — An effective vaccine to combat the deadly Sars virus is at least one year away, a top US health official said yesterday, after health authorities in Asia announced another 24 deaths from the killer disease.

“I think our strategy right now is, let’s work really hard to contain this until we have better tools like a vaccine or a drug treatment, but we’re at least a year away from any kind of vaccine that would be useful in people,” Julie Gerberding, director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, told CBS early yesterday.

As the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) urged global cooperation to contain “the first epidemic of this century,” countries stepped up their defences against the virus, with China shutting down entertainment venues in its capital and Taiwan banning visitors from affected countries.

Hong Kong reported 12 more deaths from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) yesterday, taking the total death rate to 133. It was the second time this month that a record dozen fatalities were reported in a single day.

China reported nine more fatalities, eight of them in the capital, as Taiwan announced its first Sars death and Singapore’s death toll climbed by two to 21.

In response to the growing death rate, health authorities in the city-state announced visitors would be barred from public hospitals to reduce the risk of Sars spreading to the wider community.

“Starting from April 29, 2003, all public hospitals will implement a no-visitor rule for their patients,” the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a statement.

With China’s national death toll standing at 131, fear of the disease deepened in the capital, which has been worst affected, and the city’s government ordered all cinemas, theatres, karaoke bars and Internet cafes to close. Beijing also stopped marriage registrations in a bid to curb large-scale weddings to boost its defences against Sars, state media reported.

The moves were the latest drastic measures taken by the city government to contain Sars. Schools and universities have already been closed, two hospitals have been isolated, 4,000 people have been quarantined at home and road blocks have been set up to prevent sick people leaving the city.

China’s new health minister, Vice-Premier Wu Yi, began her first day on the job yesterday by warning officials to come clean over Sars or face punishment.

“Any local official who is found to be neglecting his duty will be severely punished,” said Wu, known as China’s “Iron Lady”.

China’s battle against Sars is seen as key to overcoming the global health scare caused by the illness, which has also claimed lives in Canada (20), Malaysia (2), the Philippines (2), Malaysia (2) and Vietnam (5).

Sars has now killed 317 people and infected more than 5,000 worldwide — most of them in Asia. Panic about the deadly virus spread further in Taiwan, where a man died late on Saturday from Sars to become the island’s first fatality.

In a further step to contain the virus, Taipei announced a temporary ban on visitors from the Sars-affected areas of Singapore, Vietnam and Toronto — adding to restrictions on visitors from Hong Kong and China.

The government will also quarantine for 10 days anyone who arrives from affected countries, officials said on the island, which has 55 probable cases of the disease.

The head of the WHO, Gro Harlem Brundtland, meanwhile, urged countries to work together to stop the spread of the disease.

“At the moment we still have a chance to contain it, and to have it go down in places where outbreaks are happening and avoid its spreading to new countries,” she told BBC television from Geneva.

She added that if swift action were not taken, “we will not have done the right thing with the first epidemic of this century.”

In a bid to draw up unified plans to control the crisis, leaders from across east and southeast Asia will hold an unprecedented summit tomorrow in Bangkok. — AFP