China 'still hiding' many Sars
cases
John Gittings in Shanghai and John Aglionby in Jakarta
Thursday April 17, 2003
The Guardian
guardian.co.uk
Beijing may have more than five times as many Sars cases than
it has admitted, a World Health Organisation official said
yesterday, as scientists confirmed the identity of the virus for
the first time.
WHO investigators said they received data on new unrecorded
cases when they visited two military hospitals - but that Chinese
officials had forbidden the release of details.
WHO representative Alan Schur said that the range of
"probable" cases in the capital was "between 100 and 200".
Chinese health officials have only acknowledged 37 cases so far
in Beijing.
"Indeed, there have been cases of Sars - there is no question
about that - that have also not been reported," German WHO
virologist Wolfgang Preiser said after visiting the military
hospitals.
"The military seems to have its own reporting system which
does not link in presently with the municipal one", he explained.
The organisation confirmed yesterday that folowing collaboration
between 13 laboratories in 10 countries, scientists had
discovered a new pathogen, a member of the corona virus family
never before seen in humans, as the cause of severe acute
respiratory syndrome (Sars).
"Now we can move away from methods like isolation and
quarantines and move aggressively towards modern intervention
strategies including specific treatments and eventually
vaccination. With the establishment of the causative agent, we
are a crucial step closer," said David Heymann, executive
director, WHO communicable diseases programmes.
Researchers at the University of Hong Kong say they have
completed mapping the Sars genome and that the sequence
showed the virus had come from an unidentified animal.
In Singapore, the state-run genome institute of Singapore
announced it had almost developed a diagnostic test for Sars
and ministers said it would be available for general use "soon".
A home affairs minister, Wong Kan Seng, said it would take a
few days to get the kits tested and validated for general use. The
test will take about three hours to ascertain whether a
suspected patient actually had Sars, he added.
But health ministry officials were much less optimistic about the
timescale.
Last week, Chinese officials claimed that the much lower figure
then being given in Beijing included those in the military
hospitals.
The conflict of evidence emerged after Jiang Yanyong, a former
surgeon at one of the hospitals, made a statement accusing the
health minister, Zhang Wenkang, of covering up the real figure.
Some of the discrepancy in the figures may be explained
because China has a much narrower definition of probable cases
- which critics say is done to reduce the overall numbers.
The latest news threatens the belated efforts now being made by
China's leaders, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao,
to restore confidence at home and abroad.
After weeks of official claims that the epidemic was under
control, Mr Wen now says that the situation is "grave" and Mr
Hu admits to being "very worried."
Five new deaths were reported yesterday in Hong Kong, which
has been the worst hit area since the virus spread there from
neighbouring Guangdong province in February.
The total number of cases so far in Hong Kong is 1,268 with 61
deaths, while 257 patients have fully recovered and been
discharged from hospital.
Three babies were delivered by caesarean section in Hong Kong
after their mothers became badly affected, doctors said
yesterday. All had breathing problems and Sars-like fevers.
The threat of the unknown disease was first recognised in
January by doctors in Guangdong where animal rearing takes
place in many areas in close proximity to humans.
China says its first case was identified on March 1.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
New SARS cluster in Toronto raises
Questions
globeandmail.com
By ALLISON LAWLOR
Globe and Mail Update and Canadian Press
E-mail this Article
Print this Article
Ontario health officials
once again asked the
public Tuesday to take
extra precautions as they
struggle to contain SARS
after it spread to a religious
group in Toronto.
James Young, the
province's commissioner of
public security, urged
people who think they might
have severe acute
respiratory syndrome to
stay home and quarantine
themselves.
"If you are feeling ill or have
a fever, do not go to work,
do not go to school, do not
go out in the community.
Wait until your illness is
sorted out or you are
feeling better," Dr. Young
told a news briefing.
Anyone who suspects they
may have SARS should not
use public transit to go to
the doctor or the hospital,
he added.
Dr. Young insisted that
public health officials in
Ontario "have not lost
control" of containing
SARS as they struggle to
contain a potentially large
outbreak among a Catholic
group. On Monday night
health officials announced
that 500 members of a
Roman Catholic group
were told to quarantine
themselves after 29 of them
and two doctors who
treated them had been
diagnosed as probable or
suspect SARS cases.
Officials admitted that
some members of the group should have been in isolation but had not
been complying with the policy. In fact, officials obtained mandatory
quarantine orders against two members who refused to isolate
themselves, it was reported Tuesday.
Easter week is the most important in the Catholic calendar. Under
normal circumstances, adherents would attend masses on Thursday,
Friday and Sunday at a minimum.
Roman Catholic Bishop John Boissonneau attended the briefing by
public health officials Tuesday and urged parishioners to stay in
isolation if they've been directed to do so.
"We don't want to jeopardize anyone else," Bishop Boissonneau said.
"Some people may feel a certain tension or stress between what they
regard as their religious duty and their public health duty. Let me tell
you, their public health duty is their religious duty."
SARS spread to the community after several members of the church
attended a wake on April 3 for a person who, it was later learned, died
of SARS. Some members of the deceased's family were coming down
with the disease at the wake; it appears they may have passed the
infection to some people who attended.
The dead man had been cared for at Scarborough Grace in
mid-March, when the infection was spreading through that facility.
Thirteen people in Canada -- all in the Toronto area -- have died after
contracting the disease. The global death toll from severe acute
respiratory syndrome has reached 154, and more than 3,000 people
have been infected. Most victims have been in Asia.
Meanwhile, a Philippine nurse who was working in Canada has died of
pneumonia after returning to the Philippines and may have had SARS,
health authorities said Tuesday.
The 46-year-old woman developed a fever and cough after arriving in
the Philippines from Toronto earlier this month, said Health Secretary
Manuel Dayrit. The woman, who was not identified, was hospitalized on
April 12 and died two days later, Mr. Dayrit said.
"She is considered a suspect SARS case," he told reporters.
The nurse had no known contact with SARS patients but may have
been infected with the flu-like illness in Canada, Mr. Dayrit said.
The woman's blood sample has been sent to Japan for analysis, he
said. The same laboratory is testing blood from the Philippines' first
probable SARS case - a 64-year-old foreigner who recovered from a
high fever and is being confined in a hospital, according to authorities.
Toronto health officials were seeking more information to determine
whether the pneumonia the nurse had would have been diagnosed in
Canada as SARS, said Sheela Basrur, Toronto's medical officer of
health.
The nurse did not show any SARS symptoms before travelling to the
Philippines and was unlikely to have infected anyone while working in
Toronto, Dr. Basrur told a news briefing in Toronto.
Earlier in the day, Ontario Health Minister Tony Clement urged clinics to
give priority to cancer patients, some of whom have had their
treatments postponed by SARS scares at several Toronto-area
hospitals.
"All the stops have to come out now," said Donald Low, chief
microbiologist at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital. "We have a short
window of opportunity to try to contain this."
Ontario Premier Ernie Eves on Tuesday paid a solidarity visit to
Toronto's Chinatown, eating lunch at a local restaurant and telling
reporters "SARS is not a disease peculiar to people from Asia or of
Chinese descent." I want to call on all Ontarians to support our Chinese
community and put aside fears and prejudices. It's time to dine and do
business with our Chinese friends and neighbours all across this
province," Mr. Eves said after a meeting with Chinese community
leaders.
Despite expressing his support for the community, Mr. Eves said the
province cannot afford to compensate everyone affected by fears over
SARS. On Tuesday, provincial NDP Leader Howard Hampton called
on Mr. Eves to convene an inquiry once the outbreak is brought under
control, to "ensure that we learn from this experience."
"We must be assured that if an outbreak like this occurs again, our
system will be even better prepared," he said in an open letter to the
Premier.
Meanwhile in Hong Kong, health officials announced Tuesday that nine
people had died of SARS in the last 24 hours, the highest one-day
death toll of the disease anywhere in the world. The victims include a
number of young and otherwise healthy people, the first time the
disease had made serious inroads into those groups. Doctors in Hong
Kong said Tuesday that the rash of deaths shows that the public cannot
assume that youth and good health will protect them. "The public is
getting a more realistic view of the disease now," Dr. Lo Wing-lok,
head of the Hong Kong Medical Association, told Agence
France-Presse. "It is being too wishful to think the virus can determine
the age of the person to be infected. No one is exempted."
The youngest SARS victim yet was a 32-year-old woman who died
Tuesday in Hong Kong. Also among the dead, four of whom were in
their 30s and 40s, was a pregnant woman whose baby was delivered
by caesarian section and managed to survive, although it is not known
whether the child has the disease. "I think during the last couple of days,
our concerns remain the number of deaths and of the people who died
some of them were rather young," Hospital Authority acting Chief
Executive Ko Wing-man told a news conference.
"We're worried about these people who are young," Dr. Henry Yeung of
the Hong Kong Doctors Union (HKDU) told an AFP correspondent,
who reported that the territory had been "shaken" by the sudden spike
among younger people.
With reports from Associated Press |
