Beijing May Have 5 Times More SARS Cases Than Posted (Update3)
By Michael Forsythe
Beijing, April 16 (Bloomberg) -- Beijing may have five times as many cases of the killer respiratory disease than it has reported, in part because military hospitals haven't given information to the World Health Organization.
The Chinese capital, which has officially reported 40 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and four deaths, may have as many as 200 probable cases, according to a team from the United Nations agency visiting the city. More than 1,000 people are under observation for the disease, it said.
``Indeed, there have been cases of SARS that have not been recorded officially,'' team member Wolfgang Preiser said. ``We are not allowed to talk about this in great detail. We were asked not to give a detailed account of what we saw.''
The news may revive speculation that China has many more cases of SARS than the official tally of 1,445, and more deaths than the reported 65. The World Health Organization yesterday asked China why it was treating civilians in military hospitals.
More timely reporting may have helped health officials in other countries understand the disease earlier, David Heymann, the UN agency's executive director for communicable diseases, told reporters yesterday in New York.
It would have ``helped us understand where the disease would go'' if cooperation had begun earlier, he said.
Credibility
On April 10, Vice Health Minister Ma Xiaowei told reporters that official figures included cases from all hospitals, including those of the military.
The team visited People's Liberation Army hospitals No. 301 and No. 309 in Beijing yesterday. Jiang Yanyong, a doctor at No. 301, said last week his hospital had 46 SARS-infected employees and No. 309 had 40 cases and six deaths.
Jiang's report is ``very credible,'' said Henk Bekedam, another member of the team, at a press briefing in Beijing, and the team questioned China's assertion that the disease was ``under effective control.''
Rules have exempted Beijing's military hospitals from reporting cases, and the group agreed to have China's defense ministry vet the information they release, Preiser said. The team said the city will now start reporting data from all hospitals.
Still, SARS isn't completely uncontrolled, team member Alan Schnur said. ``We're not talking about a wild, out of control outbreak,'' he said. Figures from Guangdong province, in the south, do include military hospital cases.
Poverty
China's SARS cases may surge if the disease spreads to poorer regions from relatively rich coastal areas, Bekedam said. China requires many people to pay before being hospitalized, making medical care unaffordable for the 900 million rural residents whose annual average household income of 2,476 yuan ($300) is a third that of city dwellers.
``The government is more and more leaving it for people to pay for their own services,'' Bekedam said. ``To be sick is very expensive in China. If (poor people) cannot be treated and isolated properly, then for sure you will have a major outbreak.''
In another development, Hong Kong reported five more deaths from the disease, for total fatalities of 61, and announced 36 new cases, bringing total infections to 1,268. A total of 14 people were discharged from hospital, bringing recoveries to 25.
Hong Kong has the second-highest number of infections and cases after China. There have been more than 3,200 cases worldwide and at least 159 people have died.
The World Health Organization will soon increase the number of doctors investigating the SARS outbreak in China, and will probably have three separate teams in the country, Bekedam said.
Last Updated: April 16, 2003 07:42 EDT
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