Apparently this newest disease was in Cambodia, along the Vietnam border, not in Vietnam along the China border as early radio reports had indicated...
online.wsj.com
China Says SARS Crisis Is Hitting Its Economy
New Respiratory Disease Appears In Remote Villages in Cambodia
Associated Press
BEIJING -- The world-wide death toll from SARS passed 500 on Thursday after China's cabinet described the crisis as "still grim" not only for its people but also its economy.
In the faraway jungles of Cambodia a new mystery illness has appeared -- baffling doctors just like SARS once did.
China announced five more fatalities, raising the global number of deaths to at least 503.
The World Health Organization on Thursday extended its SARS warning on travel to Taiwan and to two more Chinese provinces.
"WHO is now recommending as a measure of precaution that people planning to travel to Tianjin and Inner Mongolia provinces of China and Taipei in Taiwan...consider postponing all but essential travel," said a statement by the U.N. agency.
WHO said it would likewise regularly reassess whether to change its travel advice for the other areas.
Highlighting the tragedy wrought by severe acute respiratory syndrome, Taiwan also announced that a young nurse, who had worked at a hospital during a SARS outbreak, died of the disease -- just weeks before she was to deliver her first baby.
China's cabinet has ordered local authorities to protect farm harvests and encourage foreign investment and exports.
"The current SARS situation is still grim, and the economic impact is more pronounced each day," said a report of Wednesday's cabinet meeting by the official Xinhua News Agency that appeared on the front pages of newspapers Thursday.
Li Kui-wai, an economics professor at the City University of Hong Kong, predicted China's GDP could fall between 1% and 2% due to SARS.
"Presumably the internal economy will sort of wind down ... and the level of foreign investment will fall as foreigners are hesitant to invest in China," Mr. Li said.
Mr. Li said other Asian countries, like Indonesia and Malaysia, may benefit if China continues to buy high levels of their products and some might be able to pick up market share elsewhere if China's exports suffer.
SARS first surfaced as a mystery illness in South China last November, when it was called "atypical pneumonia." Its origins remain unknown, though some suspect it was originally a farm animal virus that mutated to also infect humans.
Now, in Cambodia, a new unidentified type of pneumonia has killed seven people in two impoverished remote villages near the border with Vietnam.
It has SARS-like symptoms including fever, coughing and breathing problems. But unlike in most SARS cases, patients suffer diarrhea and maintain normal white blood cell counts.
"There is no evidence that this outbreak is in any way linked to the SARS," said a report by the World Health Organization and Cambodian officials, who added that the outbreak started in March and is now under control.
Doctors administered antibiotics and other drugs to villagers who resorted to traditional animal sacrifices and tribal prayers.
In the Taiwanese capital, Taipei, hospitals have been ordered to set up outside centers to screen individuals for SARS symptoms before allowing them into emergency rooms.
The disease has taken the lives of many health professionals. Doctors and nurses working in SARS wards across Asia are being hailed as heroes who put their own lives at risk to save others.
In China, they are being described by the state's propaganda machine as "angels in white." One doctor who died after contracting the virus on the job has been declared a revolutionary martyr, while others are being awarded medals.
"There have been a lot of heroic deeds that can move us to tears," said Zhou Liangluo, a district administrator in Beijing, where SARS has hit hardest and where the epidemic is only now showing signs of leveling off.
So far, SARS has mostly been an urban disease. But authorities fear it might spread into the countryside, where the majority of China's 1.3 billion people live amid a shortage of doctors and hospitals.
WHO investigators were due on Thursday to go to Hebei, a province bordering Beijing and where there been a marked surge in cases.
In the U.S., thousands of customs and immigration inspectors were being trained to spot SARS symptoms and were ordered to detain those who exhibit them as part of attempts to prevent a U.S. outbreak.
U.S. officials said travelers would be detained if they had possible signs of SARS, including high fever, dry cough, breathing trouble, or if they said they are experiencing these symptoms. A public health official would be summoned to give a medical evaluation.
In Washington, Homeland Security Department spokesman Dennis Murphy said 22 major U.S. airports would have public health officials on site.
A top Russian health official was quoted as saying Thursday that Russia had its first known case of SARS, but other officials emphasized that laboratory tests had not confirmed the diagnosis.
The ITAR-Tass news agency quoted chief epidemiologist Gennady Onishchenko as saying a man in Blagoveshchensk, a Russian town on the border with China, was confirmed as having the virus. He said doctors made the conclusion based on a "comprehensive clinical picture."
However, a spokeswoman for Onishchenko's epidemiological service, Lyubov Voropayeva, said there were no grounds to confirm that the patient had SARS. Citing the Health Ministry, ITAR-Tass said laboratory analyses had not yet confirmed the diagnosis.
Copyright (c) 2003 The Associated Press
Updated May 8, 2003 9:18 a.m.
KJC |
