Death of Chinese woman in Russia, conflicting reports about cause

Russian health authorities have quarantined 53 people after a woman died of an unknown illness on board a train headed to Moscow, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday.

The woman, from mainland China, had been on a train heading from the Far Eastern city of Blagoveshchensk on Wednesday when she died suddenly, causing alarm.

Earlier on Thursday, Radio Television Hong Kong reported that the woman may have died from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS, a contagious disease that spread worldwide and killed at least 774 people in 2002 and 2003.

WHO spokeswoman Sari Setiogi said the U.N. health agency had not received any information to support the report, nor have Russian authorities identified SARS as the cause of the death.

"At the moment there are 53 contacts of the woman in quarantine in hospital," Setiogi told reporters.

"Samples have been taken from the woman and her contacts and laboratory investigations are ongoing."

The WHO could not confirm her age.

WHO authorities are working with Russian authorities to track the case and ensure it did not represent an international public health threat, Setiogi said.

A Chinese woman, who became ill on a Moscow-bound train, died of acute respiratory viral infection (ARVI), not SARS, investigators said on Thursday.

The train travelling from the Far East Russian city of Blagoveshchensk was stopped at Zuyevka station central Russia's Kirov Region, where 52 Chinese passengers and seven Russians were sent to a local hospital.

"All of the people who were taken to hospital yesterday were admitted. Their health is described as satisfactory," a hospital source said without giving further details.

Tsui Xin Yang, 23, was traveling across Russia from China with her family. Reportedly she was feeling unwell when she got on the train in the Far Eastern city of Blagoveshchensk, Russian news agencies said. At 8:30 a.m. her dead body was taken off the train at a station near the city of Kirovsk.

RIA Novosti quoted Kirovsk doctors as saying that the autopsy proved her death had been caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). However, the Interfax news agency quoted a railroad official as refuting these reports. Spokesman for the Gorkovskaya Railroad Levan Todua said that no autopsy could be performed because the Chinese embassy had refused to allow the procedure.