Beijing Expected to Raise Sharply SARS Numbers
John Ruwitch
Apr. 20, 2003 01:33 EDT
BEIJING - Chinese authorities, under international pressure to stem the SARS virus, were expected to raise significantly the number of cases in the capital on Sunday after criticism the true figure had been concealed.
While China, where the virus is believed to have originated last year, intensified its newly declared war on the disease, fresh cases surfaced in hard-hit Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada, dashing hopes it was being contained.
Twelve people died of SARS in Hong Kong on Saturday, a record for a single day, and the World Health Organization said it feared patients in the former British colony may be harder-hit by the flu-like virus than elsewhere.
The latest deaths in Hong Kong took its toll to a world-leading 81 just a day after the city's leader, Tung Chee-hwa, said the outbreak would stabilize gradually.
The disease, which is fatal in about four percent of cases and has no known cure, has killed more than 200 people and infected nearly 3,500 around the world.
The WHO, which has teams in China investigating the outbreak, said key questions they were investigating included the most likely course of the illness as it was passed on to others, and which body fluids transmit the virus.
SARS is passed in droplets, by coughing and sneezing, but the WHO is not ruling out the possibility that it may also be transmitted when people touch objects such as lift buttons, or that it could be passed on in fecal matter.
NEW DEFINITION, NEW TOLL
In China the disease has killed 67 people and infected about 1,500 -- nearly half of the world's total cases.
China's state media confirmed the Health Ministry had changed its definition of a SARS case and ordered authorities around the country to report numbers using the new definition.
The Health Ministry and city of Beijing were due to hold a news conference on SARS at 3 p.m. The WHO has said the Beijing government would raise its toll significantly.
WHO experts investigating the China outbreak said they suspected Beijing had between 100 and 200 cases but was reporting only 37. They said cases at military hospitals, managed and regulated separately from civilian ones, had not been counted in the city's official tally.
On Sunday, the provinces of Zhejiang and Jilin joined the list of affected areas, while the Beijing Times said the state tourism bureau urged people not to venture far over a week-long May 1 holiday and told students not to go home for the break.
``DWINDLING THREAT''
But the WHO said the threat of a global Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome pandemic was dwindling.
``The vast majority of countries reporting probable SARS cases are dealing with a small number of imported cases,'' the WHO said in an update on its Web site at www.who.int.
``Experience has shown that when these cases are promptly detected, isolated, and managed...further spread to hospital staff and family members either does not occur at all or results in a very small number of secondary infections,'' it said.
But the WHO said it was concerned about the outbreaks in Hong Kong and Canada. It said a large and sudden cluster of almost simultaneous cases seen in residents of a Hong Kong housing estate had raised the possibility of transmission from an environmental source.
It said the disease appeared to be more severe both in residents of the estate and in related cases among hospital staff. It could be that those patients had exceptionally high levels of virus in their bodies, it said, or the virus, which belongs to the coronavirus family, may have mutated.
In Canada, the WHO worried about an outbreak among 31 people including members of a religious group, their relatives and health care workers who treated them.
Singapore authorities ordered a food market to shut after three people who worked there contracted the virus, threatening the government's battle to confine the disease to hospitals.
The number of confirmed cases in Singapore has risen to 177, the fourth highest in the world, and Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said the city state could be facing its worst crisis ever.
Hong Kong Announces Record Jump in SARS Deaths
Carrie Lee
Apr. 19, 2003 08:39 EDT
HONG KONG - Hong Kong reeled on Saturday from a dozen more deaths from SARS, its biggest one-day jump, just a day after the territory's leader said the outbreak would stabilize.
It also said a male flight attendant with Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd had been confirmed with SARS, the first infected cabin crew member in the former British colony.
The Health Department said it was hunting for passengers and crew members on flight CX 714 from Singapore to Hong Kong on April 15, when the man began to feel sick.
Hong Kong has now had 1,358 cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, almost as many as on the Chinese mainland where the deadly virus first appeared in the neighboring southern province of Guangdong.
Hong Kong has the world's highest SARS death toll -- 81.
The flu-like disease hit Hong Kong in March and has been spread around the world by travelers.
Armed with brooms and mops, hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong people from housewives to senior officials began cleaning up the city to battle the spread of the virus.
Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, who wore a face mask for the first time in public to inspect the clean-up, had only on Friday expressed optimism about the prognosis for SARS.
``Overall, the situation will stabilize gradually,'' he said.
Senior executive manager of the Hospital Authority Liu Shao-haei told a news conference seven of the 12 dead were old people with a history of chronic diseases.
A total of 363 patients had been discharged, including 41 on Saturday.
``Recently admitted patients are generally more seriously ill, meaning their conditions deteriorate faster and their response to treatment is less apparent,'' Yu Wai-cho, a senior doctor at Hong Kong's main SARS hospital, told the news conference.
He said those included patients from the Amoy Gardens housing estate, which has seen an explosion of cases. Health Secretary Yeoh Eng-kiong said the government had yet to find out why recent patients were sicker and did not rule out mutation of the virus.
Tung said the government planned to install infra-red-thermo imaging machines at border crossings between Hong Kong and mainland China to try to prevent the spread of SARS by identifying people with high temperatures.
Chief Secretary Donald Tsang said the government hoped to announce relief measures for SARS-hit sectors next week.
Yuen Kwok-yung, a microbiology professor at the University of Hong Kong, said patients not responding to ribavirin and steroids and were being treated with a kind of AIDS drugs that might suppress the SARS virus.
He said the success rate had yet to be seen.
Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen told reporters the government would consider raising the minimum distance between blocks of flats to avoid a repeat of the outbreak in Amoy Gardens.
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