Regional Affair

The fleet of ambulances from the China-Japan Friendship Hospital started their engines last Monday and dispersed into Beijing's smog-filled traffic. Inside the vehicles was a deadly secret: 31 coughing, shivering hospital workers who had caught severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) from their patients. Riding alongside were nurses who recoiled at each contagious breath their dangerous charges exhaled. As the white vans took a leisurely tour of the Chinese capital, a team of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) walked into the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, hoping at last to gain a more accurate...