Five more people have died of SARS in Hong Kong, officials said yesterday. The latest deaths in Hong Kong pushed the special administrative region's total fatality to 40 and the global deatb toll to at least 132 people.

　　There were 42 new cases of SARS reported in Hong Kong yesterday, bringing the total to 1,150 in the territory, although officials said 223 have recovered and been discharged from hospitals.

　　Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa met with Chinese President Hu Jintao in the border city of Shenzhen on Saturday to brief him about the territory's problems with SARS, and acknowledged it was not under control, the Hong Kong government said yesterday.

　　Tung told Hu that experts in the territory have a basic understanding of how it can be transmitted and treated, a government statement said. Hu offered to help if Hong Kong runs short on medical supplies or protective gear, the statement said.

　　Hoping to calm public fears over the SARS outbreak that shows no signs of letting up, Hong Kong health officials have released a list of 169 buildings //where// recent SARS victims have either lived or worked.

　　Two of the three fatalities reported on Saturday were people in their 30s who had no other known health problems, and officials were trying to figure out what happened in those cases.

　　Most of those who died have had other severe illnesses and many have been middle-aged or elderly, but the 35-year-old woman and 39-year-old man who died may have sought treatment late, officials said.

　　The Health Department list of 169 buildingsswheresSARS patients have lived or worked shows they have been in all but one of Hong Kong's 18 districts, spreading concerns that SARS has been distributed throughout the territory.

　　It is not clear, however, whether the victims caught the disease in their homes and offices or elsewhere, said government spokeswoman Josephine Yu.

　　The majority of SARS cases were reported in the Kowloon Peninsula and the suburban New Territories.

　　The list, released on Saturday night and updated yesterday, only includes cases reported over the past 10 days, which officials believe is the maximum incubation period for SARS.

　　Most of the patients currently in hospitals in Hong Kong are showing positive responses to the new treatment protocol. One hundred and twenty patients are receiving treatment in intensive care unit.

　　Meanwhile, the number of infected doctors and nurses in Prince of Wales Hospital,swheresthe first SARS case in Hong Kong was reported, plunged from over 75 percent to 5-6 percent.

　　Sung Jao Yiu, chairman of Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, made the remark at a press con-ference on Saturday at the hospital.

　　He said that after taking more preventive measures such as putting on special masks, gloves, gowns and even preventive glasses in treatment of SARS patients, no family members of the medical staff of the hospital contracted the disease.

　　Zhong Shangzhi, dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the same university, said at the press conference that taking a shower and change all clothes immediately on reaching home will create little chance for a doctor and his family members to get the disease.