Posted on 03/21/2003 1:27:50 AM PST by ex-Texan
Outbreak of Killer Bug Traced to Chinese Medical Professor visiting Hong Kong
[My Title -- ex-Texan]
By M.A.J. McKENNA
The Hong Kong government acknowledged Thursday that a visitor from the Chinese mainland sparked the epidemic of mystery pneumonia that has swept the world, belying weeks of disavowals by the Chinese government.
The admission of the link to the mainland Chinese outbreak -- suspected for weeks by international health authorities -- came as the U.S. toll of suspected cases rose to 13 in 10 states and the worldwide count climbed to 306 cases and 10 deaths.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday there was one suspected case each in Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin; two in North Carolina; and three in California.
The Hong Kong visitor, a professor, lived in the Guangdong province of China, where an epidemic of flu-like illness began in November and peaked last month. On Feb. 21 and 22, he stayed at Hong Kong's Metropole Hotel -- at the same time and on the same floor where five early victims of severe acute respiratory syndrome stayed and a sixth visited. The professor died March 4.
On Wednesday, the professor's brother-in-law died also. The brother-in-law did not visit the mainland, local health authorities said, but did dine with the professor while the sick man was in Hong Kong.
Hotel guests who stayed near the professor carried the virus around the world. A 78-year-old woman died after returning to Canada; five other members of her family subsequently became sick. An American businessman based in Shanghai developed symptoms on a trip to Hanoi and apparently spread the disease to hospital workers there. He died March 13.
Simultaneously Thursday, the Hong Kong Department of Health disclosed that the still unidentified virus has caused a third generation of cases. Local health care workers who were initially infected by patients have passed on the disease to their family members.
That is casual contact in my book.
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