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SARS Causing Quarantines Around The World!

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In the end, Gulf War II may be a footnote in history compared to SARS!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37343-2003Mar27.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2892837.stm

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/03/26/quarantine030326

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Living/ap20030327_1428.html

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=8&theme=&usrsess=1&id=10623

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/topstories/story/0,4386,179767,00.html

http://www.health24.co.za/news.asp?action=art&SubContentTypeId=72&ContentID=21577

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3300949&thesection=news&thesubsection=general

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=571&ncid=751&e=5&u=/nm/20030327

http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=2462222

http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/03/27/mystery.illness/

http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=2461301

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/w...ar27,0,3079301.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...&e=5&u=/nm/20030327/hl_nm/pneumonia_taiwan_dc

http://content.health.msn.com/content/Article/62/71673.htm

SARS - Singapore And Hong
Kong Both Close Schools
3-26-3

SINGAPORE (AFP) - The mystery respiratory disease spreading across Asia claimed a second victim in Singapore, as schools closed in the city state as well as in Hong Kong in hopes of containing the creeping illness.

A Protestant minister who fell ill after visiting an infected parishoner was the second reported Singaporean victim of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a local television station reported.

Health ministry officials earlier said the first victim was a male patient, but declined to give other details.

Some 600,000 students will be kept out of school until April 6 and at least 861 people in the city-state are now under orders to stay home in a bid to contain the spread of the mystery illness.

Education Minister Teo Chee Hean said at a news conference international schools are advised to "also close if they wish to do so."

While Hong Kong authorities ordered only six schools to close their doors because of the outbreak of the mystery virus, more than 50 did so voluntarily Wednesday, according to education and manpower department figures.

Media reports suggested, however, the number of school closures exceeded 100.

Parents across the region were gripped by uncertainty, and rumors the disease was spreading beyond control gripped densely-populated Singapore, where the number of SARS cases rose to 74, with 10 patients in serious condition.

SARS has already been blamed for 10 deaths in Hong Kong, four in Vietnam and three in Canada.

The disease was brought to Singapore by three local travellers who had visited Hong Kong, where they were believed to have been infected by a mainland Chinese doctor who eventually died.

Singapore has strongly advised against unnecessary travel to Hong Kong and Hanoi, and Guangdong province in southern China -- strongly suspected to be the origin of the outbreak.

Chinese state media, citing a local government report, said Wednesday that four cases of atypical pneumonia had been identified in Taiyuan, the capital of northern China's Shanxi province

Two victims remained in hospital in Shanxi, with no new cases of the virus reported since March 11.

The municipal health bureau of Shanghai, China's commercial center, said no cases of the mystery virus had been reported there, but said an emergency plan had been adopted to ensure any outbreak was treated immediately.

Canada has issued a travel advisory warning visitors away from Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Guangdong, and Singaporean Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang also said it was possible other countries could follow suit.

"Very soon, people will look at us and put us in the same category as Vietnam," he said.

Tourism is a major earner in the city-state, generating about nine billion Singapore dollars (5.11 billion US) in revenues last year.

At least 34 deaths from an outbreak of atypical pneumonia in China could be SARS-linked, but experts have yet to establish a direct connection.

The former British territory of Hong Kong, under Chinese rule since 1997, has asked for an extra 200 million Hong Kong dollars (25.6 million USD) to battle the outbreak as residents become increasingly edgy.

Chief executive Tung Chee-Hwa said Wednesday it was imperative the government adopt "more effective measures" to halt the spread of the disease, which manifests itself as a form of pneumonia.

"The present situation is serious," he said. "It is imperative for us to adopt more effective measures to prevent the virus from further spreading."

A total of 487 cases of SARS have been reported in 12 countries, according to the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO, in a statement issued Tuesday, said that despite the outbreak it "continues to recommend no travel restrictions to any destination."

Lim said that the strategy remains isolation of victims and suspected cases through quarantines and restrictions on visits to hospitalised victims.

Hefty fines will be imposed on those who break the 10-day quarantine, which was imposed under the rarely invoked Infectious Diseases Act, and visitors to homes of quarantined people should be limited.

Copyright © 2002 AFP.

And who let the outbreak go unchecked for some time? China!

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=593713AD-C9BB-44F4-815F590DB115D1D7

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/5496922.htm

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Living/ap20030327_515.html
 
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Hong Kong is the worst place for this shit to happen. I'm in Hong Kong now and I wear a mask when I go out. But to put things into perspective, only about 1 in 20,000 people (and I am being generous) have been infected in Hong Kong.
 
Ok I just read that 800 people are infected accross the border in Guangdong. This better be kept under control in Hong Kong, because Hong Kong is a business hub and a travel hub.
 
Have they determined what kind of Biological agent is involved?

Cultures should have been grown by now.
 
probably a virus

but damn we screwed. i dont see this not spreading. bad time to be a health worker :(

4% fatality rate though
 
You work your whole life as a doctor/researcher and you get your big break and identify a mystery illness! You should be on top of the world with your notoriety! But instead you die by the hand of SARS! Lifes a bitch!


WHO researcher dies of SARS
Last Updated Sat, 29 Mar 2003 14:59:44


HONG KONG - The doctor who first identified Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) as a 'mystery illness' has died of the disease.


INDEPTH: SARS: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

Dr. Carlo Urbani, 46, died in Thailand where he had been receiving treatment. An expert on communicable diseases with the World Health Organization (WHO), Urbani became infected while studying the infection in Vietnam.
SARS has sickened more than 1,400 people globally and killed 54.

The WHO says the illness originated in China.

In Hong Kong, 58 new cases of SARS were reported Saturday. Thousands of people have donned surgical masks in public. An antiwar demonstration was cancelled and much activity in the bustling city has ground to a halt.

At least 425 people have been infected with SARS in Hong Kong and 11 have died.

Elsewhere, Singapore nearly doubled the number of people quarantined to more than 1,500 on Friday.

Australia advised its citizens Saturday to reconsider travelling to Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Vietnam.

Taiwan said Saturday its SARS cases had risen from 10 to 12. Officials handed out 100,000 free surgical masks to travellers and employees at its main international airport, which was being disinfected.


FROM MARCH 28, 2003: SARS screening to be expanded

There were 59 cases of SARS in the United States and at least 35 in Canada, where three people have died.
 
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CDC: Mystery illness spreads more easily than first thought
From Elizabeth Cohen
CNN Medical Correspondent
Saturday, March 29, 2003

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The mystery illness that has sickened 1,550 people worldwide appears to spread more easily than was first thought, said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Earlier this month, when cases of the mystery illness started appearing in North America, health officials thought it could be spread only by close, face-to-face contact, such as that which occurs between a doctor and a patient or among family members.

The disease, which has killed 54 people in 13 countries, most of them in mainland China and Hong Kong, is called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.

"The potential for infecting large numbers of people is great," Gerberding told reporters Saturday. "We may be in the early stages of what could be a larger problem. On the other hand, this is new and we have a lot of questions about the overall spread."

She added that the death rate of SARS is relatively low. About 3.5 percent of people who get the disease die from it. The rest recover, usually within about seven days, she said.

"If there's any good news about SARS right now, it's that the majority of patients do appear to recover, and the death rate is lower than what we see with influenza epidemics," she said.

Rapid spread throughout communities in Hong Kong and Vietnam suggests the infectious agent causing SARS might be airborne, meaning that the disease could spread even without face-to-face contact, Gerberding said.

In addition, she said, the infectious agent might survive on inanimate objects, such as tabletops, infecting others that way.

The CDC also extended its travel advisory for SARS on Saturday to include all of mainland China as well as Hong Kong; Hanoi, Vietnam; and Singapore.

Evidence points to a never-before-recognized strain of coronavirus as the cause of SARS, according to the CDC, which is working to devise a diagnostic test to distribute to state health departments.

Coronaviruses typically can survive for two to three hours on inanimate surfaces, Gerberding said.

In the United States, most of the 62 infected people had recently returned from an affected country. Five of the cases lived with an infected traveler, and two are health care workers who cared for SARS patients in the United States.

Most of the U.S. cases are being cared for at home, where they have been ordered to remain and wear a mask. Family members have been advised to call their doctor if they get headache, fatigue, a fever or cough -- all symptoms of SARS.

Gerberding said it was unlikely someone could get the illness simply by sharing a public place, such as an elevator or an escalator, with an infected person.

"The bottom line is we don't know, but what we can tell from the pattern of transmission so far is there is no evidence in this country that those activities would pose a risk," she said.
 
Ever notice that this shit ALWAYS comes from China???

What the fuck is happening in China to cause this shit to happen? Are they mainlining feces??? I mean FUCK!! Wake up chinaman! Take a fuckin shower, clean your under your nails, and wipe everything you own or see down with name brand bleach!!
 
You know what Acup? I value my corn filled turds more than I do your life. Out of all the vast reach my computer can connect with you are the biggest asshole I have come across over the entire fucking earth! Aren't you special! I hope you trip in one of your dark fucking tunnels, break your leg, and get ate by rats.
 
fl8meplz said:
Ever notice that this shit ALWAYS comes from China???

What the fuck is happening in China to cause this shit to happen? Are they mainlining feces??? I mean FUCK!! Wake up chinaman! Take a fuckin shower, clean your under your nails, and wipe everything you own or see down with name brand bleach!!
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Many viruses come from the tropics. I'm not sure why, but it doesn't have anything to do with hygiene. Having said that, I think lots of mainland Chinese people should really wash their hands and chopsticks and cut their damn fingernails while they're at it.

By they way, I LOVE SARS! Everyone stays home in Hong Kong and there is no one in my way!
 
dcup is anyone deserves to get SARS it is you, you fucking idiotic sheep herder!

You know what Acup? I value my corn filled turds more than I do your life. Out of all the vast reach my computer can connect with you are the biggest asshole I have come across over the entire fucking earth! Aren't you special! I hope you trip in one of your dark fucking tunnels, break your leg, and get ate by rats.

god I regret posting that, Ill have to get up 3 hours early to read the reply!
Click to expand...

Another assault in a serious thread! Makes you wonder who is idiotic! Although I would gladly take on the SARS virus if I knew that it would help mankind, It still would not change the fact that you are the worlds only living brain amputate! For someone so old in the tooth such as yourself you never seem to learn! You turn a serious deadly illness thread into a fucking mentally challenged fat fuck disgrace!

I and other members warned you to shape up rsnoble you don't know what you are getting yourself into! In good faith I honored your agreement to stop using your single cell cerebrum where it does not belong! The cuffs are off! As with Saddam, you only brought this onto yourself! Bring me the Wood Chipper!
 
Taiwan acts as virus scare grips

Sunday, 30 March, 2003

Many people are buying surgical masks
Taiwan is considering a temporary shutdown of its limited links with China to try to control the rapid spread of a new form of pneumonia.
Prime Minister Yu Shyi-kun said a decision on suspending contacts could be made by Monday.

The Taiwanese President, Chen Shui-bian, has blamed China - the suspected origin of the disease - of concealing the extent of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and so hastening its spread.

Taiwan has already decreed the syndrome an "infectious disease" subject to quarantine laws and has banned visits by civil servants to affected areas, including mainland China, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

Taiwan's Centre for Disease Control puts the number of local probable cases at 12, most of them reporting the illness following trips to mainland China and Hong Kong.

No deaths have been blamed on the infection in Taiwan so far.

But at least 200 more people have been placed on a "home confinement" list for two weeks by health authorities, bringing the total number of people on the list to 500.

Fears of further transmissions have now prompted Taiwan's proposal to cancel the limited semi-direct links with China.

Direct transport links were severed 1949 at the end of the civil war.

The World Health Organisation has warned of the seriousness of the outbreak.

As concern spreads, the WHO announced that the doctor who identified the bug has himself died of the disease.

Dr Carlo Urbani, a 46-year-old Italian and an expert on communicable diseases, had identified Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in an American businessman admitted to hospital in Vietnam in February.

The WHO said Dr Urbani's early detection of the disease had led to increased global surveillance, enabling the identification and subsequent isolation of patients.

At least 54 people are known to have died of the disease, and more than 1,500 people have been infected worldwide.

Hong Kong, which reported some of the first evidence of the disease, recorded 60 fresh cases of infection on Saturday.

The government has decided to close the city's schools for a week, while thousands of people are wearing surgical masks when they leave their houses.

Hong Kong's health secretary said more people would fall ill, despite the fact that more than 1,000 people had already been quarantined.

Secretive

Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore are all confining people to their homes if they have been exposed to the disease.

Isolated cases have been identified in Europe and North America.

However in China, where the outbreak has killed at least 30 people, the authorities are enforcing a media blackout, apparently concerned that news of the disease will cause panic.

Chinese authorities have come under widespread criticism for their secretive handling of the infection.

They have continued to stall on granting permission for a group of WHO doctors to visit the south of the country, where China's first cases of the virus appeared.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2900419.stm
 
My dad, who's a Dr., had this sent to him by Health Canada on March 19th. 11 days has made quite a difference to the # of deaths & precautions.
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It is a shame that China did not alert the world when SARS first showed up on the radar! Wow the numbers since that advisory have gone way up! The latest information is that SARS is an airborne virus, such as smallpox! It may not have been a bio weapon, but it helps to shows how powerful they can be even in their infancy! Regardless of how many deaths result from this it will knock people down for at least a week in the best of the cases! This will cause a lot of financial burdens on various countries if it takes off and is a full scale epidemic!
 
WHO experts say killer bug may come from animal

"We believe at this stage that it is more infectious than a disease like Ebola," he added.

By Dolly Aglay
31 Mar 2003

MANILA, March 31 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Monday the pneumonia virus that killed nearly 60 people worldwide may have come from an animal and is more infectious than the Ebola virus that ravaged parts of Africa.

Hitoshi Oshitani, WHO's regional adviser on communicable diseases, said the world body was close to identifying the virus that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

"We can identify the causative agent within a few days but we are not sure if we can develop the cure in such a short time," he told a news conference.

"The virus genome data shows that this virus might be coming from an animal."

But Oshitani discounted the possibility it was connected with bird flu, which has hit the poultry industry in Hong Kong in recent years.

"The bird flu is an influenza virus. The virus that we are talking about is completely different," he said.

The mysterious pneumonia has spread rapidly, killing 59 people from Canada to southern China, where it is thought to have originated. WHO says 1,550 people in 15 countries have tested positive for the virus.

Hong Kong and Singapore have shut all schools and ordered hundreds of potentially infected people to stay in their homes.

Oshitani said some diseases that infected people in recent years came from animals, such as the Ebola virus from monkeys and the Nipah virus from bats.

"We believe at this stage that it is more infectious than a disease like Ebola," he added.

Experts at WHO are looking at the possibility that the deadly pneumonia is caused by a strain of paramyxovirus or coronavirus. Paramyxovirus causes measles and pneumonia in children, while coronavirus causes the common cold.

If the virus originated from animals, it would be easier for epidemiologists to find a cure, Oshitani said.

"If this is an animal virus, we can probably have an animal model for the experiment," he said. "If this is just a human one, it's difficult to develop a human model."
 
SARS Air Or Waterborne? - Over 200 In One HK Apt Block Infected

By Tan Ee Lyn and Vicki Kwong
3-31-3

HONG KONG (Reuters) - More than 100 people in one Hong Kong apartment block were suspected to have been infected by a deadly pneumonia virus, officials said on Monday, triggering fears that the killer disease was being spread through air or water.

At least two more people died from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Hong Kong during the day, taking the death toll in the city to 15 and to 61 worldwide.

A total of 213 people living in the Amoy Gardens housing estate were confirmed or suspected to be infected with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), of whom 107 are from Block E of the complex, Health Secretary Yeoh Eng-kiong told a news conference.

Authorities have quarantined more than 200 other residents in Block E in an effort to contain the virus, which has infected almost 1,700 people across the world, mostly in Asia.

Dozens of health workers in full surgical gear stood guard at the entrance of the apartment block to stop any residents from leaving as policemen in masks cordoned off the area.

But residents said many families had already fled.

The number of those infected in Amoy Gardens, in the heart of the teeming Kowloon district, is almost one-third of the total number in Hong Kong, a city of seven million people.

Two elderly men died of the disease on Monday, bringing the death toll in the city to 15.

A NIGHTMARE

Amoy Gardens is in a maze of crowded housing estates and smoke-spewing industrial buildings in one of the most densely-populated areas in the world.

Proliferation of the virus in such an environment is certain to create havoc and put immense pressure on public hospitals, which are already stretched and barely able to cope.

"We are now examining all possible angles, to see if it is airborne or in the (building's) water mains," a government spokeswoman said of the virus.

Health Minister Yeoh said: "We are now detecting the virus in the fecal material (from Amoy Gardens patients). So that would be one possible potential cause of spread to large populations under unusual circumstances."

"There was a suggestion that the sewage system was leaking...we are investigating."

Experts have previously said the virus was carried by droplets from sneezing or coughing, but the high number of cases at Amoy Gardens has raised fears the virus could be water or airborne.

"Up till today, it is spread through droplets. But no one can rule out that it could be airborne, because viruses change all the time," Yeoh said.

DISRUPTIONS

Fearful of the disease, some companies have ordered staff to work from homes while others have begun to organize backup, skeletal teams in case their workers get infected.

Hong Kong and Singapore have closed schools in a bid to contain the disease and quarantined those exposed. Besides these two cities, deaths have also been reported from Vietnam, Canada and from China, where the disease originated in November.

A doctor from the World Health Organization, who was infected in Vietnam after he had identified the virus, died in a Bangkok hospital at the weekend.

The disease has triggered tighter screenings at many airports and a growing number of countries have advised citizens against unnecessary travel to the worst-affected areas.

In Singapore, nurses have been deployed at the airport to check incoming passengers.

Apart from scaring away tourists, the epidemic has disrupted business in Hong Kong. A growing list of shops, banks and offices have shut after employees were found infected.

Some expatriates have departed quietly, taking their families with them on home leave.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Saturday that the virus may wreak more havoc.

"The potential for infecting larger numbers of people is great," said its director Julie Gerberding. "We may be in the early stages of what could be a larger problem."

Cases have also surfaced in the United States, Germany, Britain, France, Japan, Ireland, Italy and Taiwan.

Almost 1,700 people have been infected worldwide, but some have since recovered. About four percent of the people who catch it die from the disease.
ntact Us
 
airborne is pretty bad in terms of infection. at least if its water borne its something you can contain, or control to some sort of degree. worst case scenario is if it mutates into something a bit more virulent. which means they REALLY have to get a hold on this now

the chinese government has had this in china for a while, some epidemiologist said it was 'smouldering' over there.....
 
The Associated Press.
AP-NY-04-01-03 1436EST

SAN JOSE, Calif. (April 1) - An American Airlines plane is being quarantined on an airport tarmac after it arrived from Asia and four people on board showed symptoms of the mysterious illness known as SARS.

Two passengers and two crew members complained of symptoms similar to those found in Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

City health officials said those reporting the illness would be taken off the plane and examined. The rest of the passengers will be told what precautions to take.
 
Toronto: 2500 people under voluntary quarantine. All elective surgeries cancelled indefinitely. No hospital volunteers allowed, and no visitors unless the patient is very young or dying.
 
Toronto: 2500 people under voluntary quarantine. All elective surgeries cancelled indefinitely. No hospital volunteers allowed, and no visitors unless the patient is very young or dying.
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SARS outbreak just gradually gets worse! It's only been a few months since the initial outbreak and it's spreading around the world! Numbers are not epidemic levels, but they are not getting any smaller! Just when they report that is not as bad as it seems the news just gets worse! It defiantly not dying off! It will be interesting to see what a years passage of time will bring regarding SARS!
 
Here in Singapore, even nurses who wear uniforms are shun in public transport...its getting out of hand and all it takes is just one infected person to start the whole chain...

incubation period is 3-7 days, until the symtoms appear...so its pretty damn diff to spot...

Juz punch the guy beside u who cough next time....after that steralize your fist ...

cheers
 
Here in Singapore, even nurses who wear uniforms are shun in public transport...its getting out of hand and all it takes is just one infected person to start the whole chain...

incubation period is 3-7 days, until the symtoms appear...so its pretty damn diff to spot...

Juz punch the guy beside u who cough next time....after that steralize your fist ...

cheers
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Thanks for the info! Since your in ground zero for SARS, share any info you have! Do you know anything about "Super Spreaders" That seems do be where they are concentrating on how SARS clusters are spread! Those with Syphilis and SARS may be Super Spreaders of SARS!
 
These ppl are termed as "SUPER INFECTORS" they are extremely contagious. In Singaproie alone right now about 100+ ppl are infected and 94 of them were infected by this lady alone! (she went HK and stayed in a hotel with another SARS parient who has died)

The virus apparently can survice on surfaces for up to 3 hrs...

Govt will try to play down on the seriousness of the situation for fear of affecting the economy....the city area is almost empty as compared to 1 month back.

Trains and buses are disinfected almost everyother 2 hrs.

We are all now living in fear and anybody who coughs or sneeze will be stared at!

For me I try my best not to breathe whenever I step into a lift!;)
 
I'm in Hong Kong and all schools are suspended, most offices require their employees to wear masks, 90% of the people on public transport are wearing masks, 60% on the street. The masks are shitty surgical masks that don't filter the air very well. I have a 3M mask but I don't wear it. The streets are less busy and restaurants are dead. I was in a streetside restaurant and they put us at the front and gave us free wine to attract more customers. I think about 800-900 people have been infected out of 6.7 million.
 
Beijing's SARS Attack
Doctor and party member insists there are many more cases than officials will admit

BY SUSAN JAKES / BEIJING
Tuesday, April 8, 2003

A physician at Beijing's Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital (No. 301) in a signed statement provided to TIME, says that at one Beijing hospital alone, 60 SARS patients have been admitted of whom seven have died. That indicates the number of patients infected with SARS in Beijing may be significantly higher than those totals made public by China's Ministry of Health. Last Thursday Chinese Minister of Health Zhang Wenkang announced to the press that China's capital had seen just 12 cases of SARS of whom three had died. Today's edition of the official China Daily put the number of SARS infections in Beijing at 19 with four dead.

The doctor, Jiang Yanyong, 72, told TIME today he wrote the statement because he feels that "a failure to disclose accurate statistics about the illness will only lead to more deaths." Jiang says medical staff in Beijing's military hospitals were briefed about the dangers of SARS at the beginning of the National People's Congress in early March, but told not to publicize what they'd learned lest it interfere with the annual meeting of China's rubber-stamp legislative body. This has been confirmed by another physician at a Beijing-area hospital.

After watching Zhang Wenkang's televised press statement last week, Jiang says he spoke to doctors and nurses at three Beijing military hospitals who expressed surprise and anger at the Minister's statement. As of today, Jiang says doctors at Beijing's No. 309 PLA Hospital told him they are treating 60 SARS patients and that seven patients have died of SARS. A duty officer at the No. 309 hospital reached for comment tonight said he "wasn't clear about this matter" and refused to provide information about SARS patients at the hospital.

The following are translated excerpts of Jiang's statement:

"On April 3rd, China's Minister of Health announced to the press that the Chinese government was already diligently dealing with the problem of SARS, and that the spread of the disease was already under control. He said that Beijing had 12 SARS cases and that three had died of the disease. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The next day when I went to the hospital all the doctors and nurses who had seen Zhang's statement were furious. As a doctor who cares about people's lives and health, I have a responsibility to aid international and local efforts to prevent the spread of SARS.

This is what I learned from my colleagues:

Around the time of the convening of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Beijing's No. 301 Hospital admitted an old man. At the time he was very ill and thought to be possibly suffering from SARS. He was therefore sent to Beijing's No. 302 Hospital (an infectious diseases hospital) for treatment. At that time the doctors at No. 302 Hospital didn't have experience with the disease. In the process of treating him 10 doctors and nurses were infected with SARS. The old man was very sick and died two days after entering the hospital. His wife was admitted soon afterward and also died. Only at this time did officials from the Ministry of Health call a meeting of hospital leaders to inform them that Beijing now had cases of this disease, but that in order to ensure stability as the nation's two annual legislative assemblies got underway, hospital officials were forbidden to publicize what they'd learned about SARS.

That day after watching the Minister's statement, I telephoned colleagues at the No. 309 People's Liberation Army hospital. They had also seen the news and said that Zhang's statement was outrageous. As of yesterday their hospital (which the PLA general logistics department had designated its main hospital for SARS) had already admitted 60 SARS patients of whom 7 had died. Because No. 309 is already full to capacity the PLA general logistics department has again asked the No. 302 PLA Hospital to admit more patients. On April 6th the No. 302 PLA Hospital admitted five severely ill patients from the People's Armed Police."

http://www.time.com/time/asia/news/daily/0,9754,441615,00.html
 
Sars 'spread by cockroaches'

Tuesday, 8 April, 2003, 15:58 GMT 16:58 UK

Experts have a new theory on how the Sars illness raced through an entire apartment block in Hong Kong.

Sars spread at a HK apartment block baffled doctors
They believe that cockroaches may have carried the infection from flat to flat.

The death toll from Sars - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - continues to mount.

Officially, 103 people have now died worldwide from the pneumonia it causes, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Singapore, where 200 people are suspected of being infected, has drafted in 50 air force paramedics to help screen airline passengers arriving from places hit by Sars such as China and Toronto.

However, China provided some good news on the bug when it announced that the rate of new cases in Guangdong Province - believed to be the Sars epicentre - had more than halved in the past month.


How Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome has spread around the world


In pictures

Scientists are increasingly confident that the illness is caused by a virus related to that which causes the common cold.

A team from the University of Hong Kong studied 50 patients with Sars from five separate outbreak clusters.

Nine out of 10 showed evidence of infection by a coronavirus. In contrast, the virus was not found in any healthy people that the scientists also examined.

The scientists, who published their work on The Lancet website on Tuesday, said the virus they had isolated was not one of the two known human coronaviruses. They believe it may have originated in animals.

Drainage problem

The cockroach theory was voiced by Hong Kong Deputy Director of Health Leung Pak-yin on Monday.

He was talking about how the disease managed to spread like wildfire through an apartment block at Amoy Gardens in Kowloon.

In just a few days, more than 300 new cases arose among residents of the block.

The cases left health officials baffled and deeply concerned, as many of the 300 had had no direct contact with anyone who had Sars.

Leung said: "The drainage may be the reason. It is possible that the cockroaches carried the virus into the homes."

Scientists are still not sure exactly what causes Sars, or how easy it is to spread.

A WHO investigation team will finish a six-day visit to Guangdong Province on Tuesday.

The Chinese authorities are insisting that they are bringing the outbreak there under control.

Huang Qindao, the director of Guangdong's health department, told AFP: "New cases are steadily decreasing... so even though the disease source hasn't been found, the disease can be prevented and treated."

It was announced on Monday that an American teacher and a Chinese Canadian couple had both picked up Sars during a visit to Southern China.

It follows the death of a Finnish man in Beijing from the illness.

Pekka Aro, 53, died in Beijing bringing the country's death toll from the virus to 53.

On Monday, Beijing's authorities announced they would disinfect all five diplomatic compounds housing businessmen, journalists and diplomats.

Canadian concerns

SARS: PROBABLE CASES AND DEATHS
China 1,279 cases (53 deaths)
Hong Kong 928 (25)
Singapore 113 (8)
Vietnam 62 (4)
Canada 91 (10)
Thailand 7 (2)
Malaysia 1 (1)
Source: World Health Organization (14.30GMT Tuesday)
Note: The WHO only records cases and deaths it believes are "probable" Sars - figures from national health authorities may vary.

In Canada, the disease has killed 10 people.

The head of the Canadian central bank warned on Monday that the virus could have economic consequences there.

"An epidemic like Sars, if it carries on, is obviously going to be quite serious but we don't know that. We know there is going to be a short-term impact," Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge said.

The virus shows no signs of being contained.

According to local reports, Sars has spread to Hong Kong's Tuen Mun district where a hospital is treating dozens of cases.

On Tuesday, Singapore said six more nurses had been infected with the virus while India reported its first case - a US citizen who had been taken ill after travelling to Bombay from China.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2927695.stm
 
900 to 1800. 1800 to 3600. 3600 to 7200 and so on, untill the world in infected. except those few who lived deap underground in "THE CELL" starring arnold schwarzenegger. coming summer 2004
 
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