WHO Team Goes to Chinese Area Hit by SARS
By WILLIAM FOREMAN 05/07/2003 05:53:07 EST
World Health Organization experts were being sent to a crowded province in China where SARS is
spreading fast, while new research published Wednesday suggests the illness is much more deadly
than other respiratory diseases.
As the global death toll from SARS approached 500, Russia considered imposing harsh restrictions
along its border with China, where experts say the disease has yet to peak. Chinese officials arrested
alleged Internet rumor mongers and revoked the licenses of doctors who refused to treat the infection.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson said China and the
United States would work closer on SARS, although a senior Chinese official was noncommittal about
providing U.S. scientists with specimens from patients.
The U.S. government has authorized immigration and customs inspectors at U.S. airports to use force
to detain passengers who appear to have SARS symptoms, The New York Times reported
Wednesday. None had been detained so far, it said.
New findings in The Lancet medical journal show that SARS is killing one in five of patients
hospitalized with the virus in hard-hit Hong Kong, including 55 percent of infected patients aged over
60.
In younger patients, the death rate could be as low as 6.8 percent, the study found.
"That's sadly still very high for a respiratory infection," said Roy Anderson, the epidemiologist at
London's Imperial College who headed the study. "In other common respiratory infections it is much
less than 1 percent in the vulnerable elderly."
The research, which also involved the University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong health authorities - is
the first major study of SARS trends but was based only on data from Hong Kong, where at least 203
people have died.
Scientists differ over what the chances are for an average person anywhere dying from it. Worldwide,
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts the death rate at 6.6 percent. The World
Health Organization says it ranges from 6 percent to 10 percent.
WHO said it will deploy an investigative team on Thursday to the densely populated northern province
of Hebei, where the number of SARS infections has "risen sharply" in the past week, doubling to 98
between April 30 and May 4.
At least 497 people have died around the world, with 11 new fatalities in Hong Kong, five in China and
two in Taiwan reported on Wednesday.
More than 6,800 have been infected since the disease surfaced in China's southern province of
Guangdong in November. China has had 219 SARS deaths, about half of them in Beijing.
Chinese police said Wednesday that pets owned by quarantined people must be isolated or put to
death for fear that the animals may carry the disease. In the eastern city of Nanjing, where about
10,000 people are under quarantine, dogs are banned from streets, parks and other public places,
authorities said.
In northeastern Liaoning province, authorities revoked the licenses of two doctors, one for refusing to
see patients with fevers and the other for refusing to attend meetings on SARS prevention, Xinhua said.
Another doctor lost her job in the southwestern province of Sichuan when she refused to work with
suspected SARS patients, the agency said.
In Beijing, four people have been charged with "causing public panic" by spreading SARS rumors on
the Internet and through mobile phone messages, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Around the world, countries were trying to find ways to keep SARS away from their borders.
Organizers of the Miss Universe pageant said contestants - especially those from countries most
affected by SARS - must produce health certificates before they can participate in the contest,
scheduled for June 3 in Panama City. In Australia, models visiting from Hong Kong wore decorated
surgical masks on the catwalk at a Sydney fashion show.
In Europe, health ministers agreed to spend an extra $23 million on research, including the
development of a SARS vaccine. But they failed to agree on SARS screening at European airports,
fearing such measures would be too heavy-handed.
Russia's top health official recommended restrictions on the Russian-Chinese border.
"Only Chinese citizens should be allowed to leave and only Russian citizens should be let in,"
Gennady Onishchenko told Echo of Moscow radio, in remarks shown on Russian television. "This
process has been working: no SARS has been brought in," he said.
Onishchenko said that he might raise the issue of fully closing Russia's border with China,although this
would hurt trade.
In the United States, Health Secretary Thompson said Chinese Vice Premier and Health Minister Wu
Yi agreed to cooperate in training and lab development while more U.S. health advisers would be put on
the ground in China.
Thompson said that in a telephone call Monday night, Wu was noncommittal when asked if China
would give U.S. experts specimens from Chinese patients at various stages of infection. |
