Speak of the devil iht.com Was that your flight perchance?
<HONG KONG The health authorities in Hong Kong on Tuesday appealed for all passengers from two Air China flights to call a health hot line after at least nine passengers on the flights fell ill with a mysterious, deadly pneumonia thought to be severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
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The newest suspected cases fueled fears that the disease was spreading further among travelers.
.
The wide distribution of cases and severity of the illness continues to surprise health authorities around the world and has prompted Singapore to enforce the largest health quarantine in the country’s 38-year history.
.
President Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines, said that her government was considering a travel ban to and from countries affected by outbreaks. “It seems the world and the area around us is getting more and more cases,” said Leung Pak-yin, Hong Kong’s deputy director of health. “This is very, very alarming.”
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In Hong Kong, the transportation hub from which the disease spread worldwide, thousands of residents have taken to wearing surgical masks in public to avoid catching a disease that turns into certain pneumonia and which doctors say is spread by droplets when people sneeze or cough. Four schools were closed Tuesday and at least six primary schools reportedly planning to close beginning Wednesday, a spokesman for the Education and Manpower Department said.
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While researchers remain divided over the cause of the disease, Leung said the treatment now being administered by Hong Kong doctors would work for all forms of the virus now under investigation. On Monday the World Health Organization reported 456 cases of the disease in 15 countries and the death of 17 infected patients in the past three weeks. In addition to those countries and territories already listed, cases have now been reported in Macau and France.
.
The number of cases in Hong Kong, epicenter of the outbreak, rose by 25 on Tuesday, bringing to 290 the number of patients with suspected infections.
.
Among the victims is the hospital authority’s chief executive, Dr. William Ho, the man charged with combating the spread of the disease.
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After Hong Kong, the countries reporting the most cases are Singapore with 65, Vietnam with 58, the United States with 37 and Canada with 11.
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All passengers on Air China Flight 112 on March 15 or Flight 115 on March 19 between Hong Kong and Beijing should contact the Hong Kong health authorities immediately, Leung said, warning that at least nine passengers on those flights had been infected by a patient now hospitalized in Beijing. Confirmation by Leung that a patient in China is suffering from the disease is the first acknowledgment that the disease exists in China.
.
The majority of those infected in the Hong Kong outbreak were traced back to a single doctor who arrived from China’s southern Guangdong Province, but Beijing has never provided public health officials with any statistics on the number or severity of cases.
.
Speaking at the World Health Organization’s headquarters in Geneva on Tuesday, David Heymann, head of com municable diseases, urged greater cooperation from China. A team of five specialists arrived in Beijing on Sunday, but Heymann said they had not yet been given permission to visit Guangdong Province.
.
Heymann said that despite the continued spreading of the disease, the World Health Organization would not upgrade travel warnings. As it stands, any aircraft with a passenger exhibiting symptoms — a high fever, coughing and shortness of breath — must alert the destination airport. All aircraft passengers and crew must be informed that suspected case of the disease was on board and all should remain in contact with airport the health authorities for 14 days. Hong Kong’s chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, was recently delayed upon returning from Beijing while health officials examined a suspected case in a fellow passenger. While health officials in Hong Kong said current measures were enough, Singapore invoked laws enforcing an infectious disease quarantine. for the first time ever.
.
Under penalty of fines reaching a maximum of 10,000 Singapore dollars ($5,800), 740 Singapore residents who may have been infected were required to remain at home for a period of at least ten days.
.
“A stronger wall is now created to break the chain of infection,” Singapore’s health minister, Lim Hng Kiang, (ok)said, adding that Singaporeans should prepare for possible fatalities among the city-state’s 65 infected patients.
.
Vietnam on Monday reported two new deaths for a total of four, and Canada has had three deaths. HONG KONG The health authorities in Hong Kong on Tuesday appealed for all passengers from two Air China flights to call a health hot line after at least nine passengers on the flights fell ill with a mysterious, deadly pneumonia thought to be severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
.
The newest suspected cases fueled fears that the disease was spreading further among travelers.
.
The wide distribution of cases and severity of the illness continues to surprise health authorities around the world and has prompted Singapore to enforce the largest health quarantine in the country’s 38-year history.
.
President Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines, said that her government was considering a travel ban to and from countries affected by outbreaks. “It seems the world and the area around us is getting more and more cases,” said Leung Pak-yin, Hong Kong’s deputy director of health. “This is very, very alarming.”
.
In Hong Kong, the transportation hub from which the disease spread worldwide, thousands of residents have taken to wearing surgical masks in public to avoid catching a disease that turns into certain pneumonia and which doctors say is spread by droplets when people sneeze or cough. Four schools were closed Tuesday and at least six primary schools reportedly planning to close beginning Wednesday, a spokesman for the Education and Manpower Department said.
.
While researchers remain divided over the cause of the disease, Leung said the treatment now being administered by Hong Kong doctors would work for all forms of the virus now under investigation. On Monday the World Health Organization reported 456 cases of the disease in 15 countries and the death of 17 infected patients in the past three weeks. In addition to those countries and territories already listed, cases have now been reported in Macau and France.
.
The number of cases in Hong Kong, epicenter of the outbreak, rose by 25 on Tuesday, bringing to 290 the number of patients with suspected infections.
.
Among the victims is the hospital authority’s chief executive, Dr. William Ho, the man charged with combating the spread of the disease.
.
After Hong Kong, the countries reporting the most cases are Singapore with 65, Vietnam with 58, the United States with 37 and Canada with 11.
.
All passengers on Air China Flight 112 on March 15 or Flight 115 on March 19 between Hong Kong and Beijing should contact the Hong Kong health authorities immediately, Leung said, warning that at least nine passengers on those flights had been infected by a patient now hospitalized in Beijing. Confirmation by Leung that a patient in China is suffering from the disease is the first acknowledgment that the disease exists in China.
.
The majority of those infected in the Hong Kong outbreak were traced back to a single doctor who arrived from China’s southern Guangdong Province, but Beijing has never provided public health officials with any statistics on the number or severity of cases.
.
Speaking at the World Health Organization’s headquarters in Geneva on Tuesday, David Heymann, head of com municable diseases, urged greater cooperation from China. A team of five specialists arrived in Beijing on Sunday, but Heymann said they had not yet been given permission to visit Guangdong Province.
.
Heymann said that despite the continued spreading of the disease, the World Health Organization would not upgrade travel warnings. As it stands, any aircraft with a passenger exhibiting symptoms — a high fever, coughing and shortness of breath — must alert the destination airport. All aircraft passengers and crew must be informed that suspected case of the disease was on board and all should remain in contact with airport the health authorities for 14 days. Hong Kong’s chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, was recently delayed upon returning from Beijing while health officials examined a suspected case in a fellow passenger. While health officials in Hong Kong said current measures were enough, Singapore invoked laws enforcing an infectious disease quarantine. for the first time ever.
.
Under penalty of fines reaching a maximum of 10,000 Singapore dollars ($5,800), 740 Singapore residents who may have been infected were required to remain at home for a period of at least ten days.
.
“A stronger wall is now created to break the chain of infection,” Singapore’s health minister, Lim Hng Kiang, (ok)said, adding that Singaporeans should prepare for possible fatalities among the city-state’s 65 infected patients.
.
Vietnam on Monday reported two new deaths for a total of four, and Canada has had three deaths. HONG KONG The health authorities in Hong Kong on Tuesday appealed for all passengers from two Air China flights to call a health hot line after at least nine passengers on the flights fell ill with a mysterious, deadly pneumonia thought to be severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
.
The newest suspected cases fueled fears that the disease was spreading further among travelers.
.
The wide distribution of cases and severity of the illness continues to surprise health authorities around the world and has prompted Singapore to enforce the largest health quarantine in the country’s 38-year history.
.
President Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines, said that her government was considering a travel ban to and from countries affected by outbreaks. “It seems the world and the area around us is getting more and more cases,” said Leung Pak-yin, Hong Kong’s deputy director of health. “This is very, very alarming.”
.
In Hong Kong, the transportation hub from which the disease spread worldwide, thousands of residents have taken to wearing surgical masks in public to avoid catching a disease that turns into certain pneumonia and which doctors say is spread by droplets when people sneeze or cough. Four schools were closed Tuesday and at least six primary schools reportedly planning to close beginning Wednesday, a spokesman for the Education and Manpower Department said.
.
While researchers remain divided over the cause of the disease, Leung said the treatment now being administered by Hong Kong doctors would work for all forms of the virus now under investigation. On Monday the World Health Organization reported 456 cases of the disease in 15 countries and the death of 17 infected patients in the past three weeks. In addition to those countries and territories already listed, cases have now been >
In the pre-emptive, self-defence attack, the virus got Dr Ho. That will not be lost on a fearful population.
I wonder if my nervous nellie words saved your bacon? Are we even?
Mqurice |
