PITTSFIELD – The highly successful English immersion program held for the past three years at Maine Central Institute has been canceled this year because of fallout from concern about SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Many students who attend the summer program come from places such as China, Hong Kong and Taiwan that have been affected by the SARS outbreak.

Even though travel restrictions have been lifted and SARS cases are diminishing, MCI’s director of admissions, Clint Williams, said plans to bring 12 students from mainland China were canceled.

The latest SARS count in the United States, as compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is 401 cases. There have been no confirmed cases in Maine.

Internationally, there have been 8,460 cases and 799 deaths, with the largest percentage occurring in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Canada.

“China is a high-risk area,” said Williams. “We did not want to put the students or anyone in our small community at risk here. We had several students pre-enrolled from other countries but not enough to go forward without the 12 Chinese students. We opted to postpone the program for one year.”

The immersion program provided an American lifestyle for students from Asia, the Middle East and other nations by having them live with area host families for six weeks. During that time, they attended intensive English classes at MCI and also experienced eating lobsters at Bar Harbor, watching a Sea Dogs baseball game or hiking in Maine forests.

MCI also has a large international population during the regular school year and Williams said there has been a small effect there. “Things are slower than usual, but basically we are on schedule,” he said.

During this past school year, MCI has had 60 international students. About 10 were from SARS -affected countries.

Williams said some of the students who recently completed the school year and were from SARS-infected countries had serious concerns earlier this year about whether they should remain in the United States for the summer. “They began asking me in February about what they should do,” said Williams. “But now, because of the resulting improvements, all the students did go home.”

Williams said barring a resurgence of the disease, the program will be held next year.