NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says he, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and six other senators are taking precautions against the highly contagious SARS virus as they visit Beijing this week for meetings on the epidemic and North Korea’s nuclear threat.

Frist, a Nashville heart surgeon before he was elected to Congress, said the senators are traveling in a private airplane, washing their hands at least once an hour and staying in isolated, well-vented hotel rooms. However, they aren’t wearing masks.

“They’re not protective unless you’re in close contact with someone who is symptomatic,” Frist said Monday in a conference call from Beijing.

The delegation met Monday with China President Hu Jintao, who promised to “boldly and aggressively” fight SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, the Tennessee Republican said. There is no known cure for the disease, which has infected more than 3,900 people worldwide. At least 218 people have died, but none in the United States.

Collins said, “Chinese officials now appear to recognize that earlier attempts to conceal the extent of the epidemic have endangered the health of their citizens, allowed the disease to spread to many other countries, and harmed the Asian economy.”

Later this week, the delegation will meet with officials from North Korea and China to discuss North Korea’s suspected nuclear weapons program.

The delegation also pressed Chinese officials on human rights. “We brought up the specific case of Chinese dissident Rebiya Kadeer, a businesswoman who was arrested in 1999 as she entered a hotel in Xinjiang to discuss human rights with congressional staff visiting China. She was subsequently sentenced to an eight-year prison term,” Collins said, “and we pressed for her release from prison.”

Collins reported that the U.S. delegation also asked the foreign minister for a complete review of all current cases of prisoners who have been sentenced for “counterrevolutionary” crimes.

“Whenever an official American delegation visits a country like China with a long history of human rights violations, it is incumbent on us to keep pushing for the recognition of basic human rights,” Collins said.

Other senators on the 10-day trip are: Conrad Burns, R-Mont.; Mark Dayton, D-Minn.; Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I.; Ben Nelson, R-Neb.; Bill Nelson, D-Fla.; and Don Nickles, R-Okla.