Officials say 53 now have died; WHO experts study possible animal link to mystery disease

China on Monday reported another death from severe acute respiratory syndrome and revealed that fatalities in recent weeks have been much more widespread than previously reported. In the country's south, international experts were looking into whether the mystery disease might have come from animals on farms or in the wild. Also Monday, the Beijing office of the Geneva-based International Labor Organization was sealed, and an employee of the diplomatic office building said it was disinfected after a Finnish official of the agency fell ill with SARS in Beijing. The official died Sunday. Nationwide, the country's death toll has risen by one to 53, state television reported, citing the Health Ministry. It said that included 43 deaths in the southern province of Guangdong, where experts suspect SARS originated. The report said the toll includes one death each in the provinces of Shanxi in the north, Sichuan in the west and Hunan in central China -- the first fatalities announced for those areas. The report didn't say when they occurred or give other details, and phone calls to the Health Ministry weren't immediately answered. The report came as World Health Organization experts who are searching Guangdong for clues as to how SARS spreads and why it kills were looking into whether it might have come from animals. China last week granted WHO its first visit to the region since the outbreak surfaced there in November.