Singapore quarantines 740
By D'arcy Doran
March 25, 2003
SINGAPORE'S government has ordered about 740 people who may have been exposed to victims of a mysterious flu-like illness to stay home for 10 days in a bid to contain the disease.
Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang said he was invoking the Infectious Diseases Act for the first time since Singapore gained independence in 1965.
Entire households will be quarantined and the government plans to arrange to deliver groceries to them and compensate people who could suffer financial difficulties due to lost income, Lim said.
The city state of 4 million people has recorded 65 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), including 14 new cases reported today.
Twelve patients are in serious condition in an intensive care unit, Lim said.
"The number in ICU will increase, unfortunately, and there may be fatalities," he told reporters. "A stronger wall is now created to break the chain of infection."
Any quarantined person caught outside their home could face a fine of up to $S5000 ($4792) for a first infraction and $S10,000 ($9584) for a second offence, officials said.
Those on the quarantine list include people who may have had exposure to infected people, including children at a school and a daycare, which will be closed for the duration of the quarantine.
National Environment Agency officers will monitor the quarantined people daily, checking for symptoms of the disease, the health ministry said in a statement.
SARS has made 386 people around the world ill and killed 11 people in three weeks, according to WHO figures. Experts suspect it is linked to an earlier outbreak of an unidentified disease in China, where officials say 305 people have fallen ill and five have died.
As part of efforts to further isolate patients, Singapore's Tan Tock Seng Hospital, which houses the Communicable Diseases Centre, will now only admit patients suspected of having the disease, the minister said over the weekend. Other patients have been transferred to affiliated hospitals.
Singapore's effort to contain the disease have exceeded the recommendations of the World Health Organisation, said Osman David Mansoor, a WHO official working with the Singapore government to unravel what causes the illness.
He said Singapore has the most detailed data on cases of the pneumonia, which shows patients can only infect others once they show the symptoms.
"The spreading is happening in hospitals, therefore it's controllable," Mansoor said.
Oh really?
Hospital chief gets flu virus
By Helen Luk in Hong Kong
March 24, 2003
THE chief of Hong Kong's Hospital Authority has fallen ill with pneumonia symptoms, and officials said two more victims of a mystery disease have died, heightening public fears of a wider outbreak.
Many wore surgical masks as they went around town, hoping to avoid infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
Half of the more than 400 people who have been sickened worldwide are in Hong Kong.
Dr William Ho, chief executive of the Hospital Authority, became ill last night and was taken to hospital.
news.com.au
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