Posted on 03/30/2003 9:03:18 AM PST by blam
Killer virus spreads as 60 more fall ill
Health officials in Hong Kong have announced that 60 more people have fallen ill with a deadly flu-like disease.
More than half of the new infections are in one apartment complex.
The announcement pushes the number of infections worldwide past 1,600.
New cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, have picked up pace in the past few days and at least 56 people are now known to have died of it worldwide.
One of the latest victims was the doctor who identified the virus.
Dr Carlo Urbani, 46, an Italian WHO expert on communicable diseases, died on Saturday in Thailand where he was receiving treatment after being infected while working in Vietnam.
Hong Kong has now reported 530 cases of SARS, although officials noted that 60 patients there had recovered and been discharged.
Between 110 and 120 SARS cases have come from Amoy Gardens, which is located in Kowloon Bay, a government spokeswoman said .
© Associated Press
Story filed: 17:28 Sunday 30th March 2003
BBC, 3-30-2003
Many people are buying surgical masks Taiwan is considering a temporary shutdown of its limited links with China to try to control the rapid spread of a new form of pneumonia.
Prime Minister Yu Shyi-kun said a decision on suspending contacts could be made by Monday.
The Taiwanese President, Chen Shui-bian, has blamed China - the suspected origin of the disease - of concealing the extent of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and so hastening its spread.
This virus is unlike any known human or animal member of the virus family, World Health Organisation
Taiwan has already decreed the syndrome an "infectious disease" subject to quarantine laws and has banned visits by civil servants to affected areas, including mainland China, Hong Kong and Vietnam.
Taiwan's Centre for Disease Control puts the number of local probable cases at 12, most of them reporting the illness following trips to mainland China and Hong Kong.
No deaths have been blamed on the infection in Taiwan so far.
But at least 200 more people have been placed on a "home confinement" list for two weeks by health authorities, bringing the total number of people on the list to 500.
Fears of further transmissions have now prompted Taiwan's proposal to cancel the limited semi-direct links with China.
Direct transport links were severed 1949 at the end of the civil war.
The World Health Organisation has warned of the seriousness of the outbreak.
MYSTERY BUG
* 54 people dead and 1,500 infected worldwide
* 1,500 quarantined in Singapore
* Originated in southern China
* Cases showing up in Europe and the United States
* Spread by international travellers
"This virus is unlike any known human or animal member of the virus family," it said in a statement.
As concern spreads, the WHO announced that the doctor who identified the bug has himself died of the disease.
Dr Carlo Urbani, a 46-year-old Italian and an expert on communicable diseases, had identified Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in an American businessman admitted to hospital in Vietnam in February.
The WHO said Dr Urbani's early detection of the disease had led to increased global surveillance, enabling the identification and subsequent isolation of patients.
At least 54 people are known to have died of the disease, and more than 1,500 people have been infected worldwide.
Hong Kong, which reported some of the first evidence of the disease, recorded 60 fresh cases of infection on Saturday.
The government has decided to close the city's schools for a week, while thousands of people are wearing surgical masks when they leave their houses.
Hong Kong's health secretary said more people would fall ill, despite the fact that more than 1,000 people had already been quarantined.
Secretive
Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore are all confining people to their homes if they have been exposed to the disease.
Isolated cases have been identified in Europe and North America.
However in China, where the outbreak has killed at least 30 people, the authorities are enforcing a media blackout, apparently concerned that news of the disease will cause panic.
Chinese authorities have come under widespread criticism for their secretive handling of the infection.
They have continued to stall on granting permission for a group of WHO doctors to visit the south of the country, where China's first cases of the virus appeared.
BBC, 3-30-2003
Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones are touring the world The Rolling Stones have cancelled two concerts in China because of a mystery illness that has broken out in Asia. The band had been due to play in Shanghai and Beijing, which would have been their first shows in the country.
The Stones had already cancelled gigs in Hong Kong for the same reason.
A statement issued by the band from Singapore said they had cancelled the gigs on the warnings of the World Health Organisation and Center for Disease Control.
"We are very sad and disappointed not to be able to do these concerts," said Mick Jagger.
"We have been looking forward to the shows in China for so long and will reschedule them as soon as possible."
Reschedule planned
The Stones said they had also taken into account the concerns expressed by local Chinese government officials, communities and individuals over large public gatherings.
The health warnings concern the condition known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
The Stones Licks world tour will continue with concerts on 4 April in Bangalore, 7 April in Mumbai and 10 April in Bangkok, the band said.
They played their Singapore dates despite schools being closed as a precaution against the spread of the disease which claimed at least one life in the region.
But SARS is more widespread in Hong Kong.
A spokeswoman for the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre where the concerts were due to be held said the band were trying to reschedule the dates.
The new plans will be released later in the year.
Veteran American singer Andy Williams, 76, has also postponed a concert in Hong Kong on 12 April until 6 June because he did not want his band risking their health.
Suspected cases
Almost 500 people outside China have been infected with the illness, according to most recent World Health Organisation figures.
More than 700 people have already been quarantined in Singapore on suspicion that they may have come into contact with the disease.
New suspected cases have also emerged in Canada, where three people have already died from SARS.
And in Hong Kong more than 50 schools have been closed or closed voluntarily as the number of people infected in the territory rose to 290.
From The News-Times [Danbury, CT], Friday, March 28, 2003:
Doctors Find SARS At UConn
School on alert following diagnosis
By Robert Miller
Two more cases of a newly discovered, deadly respiratory illness surfaced in the state Thursday, with one involving a student at the University of Connecticut putting the Storrs campus on alert.
The report comes as the world continues to come to terms with sudden acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
[some non-relevant text edited out]
Officials from the state Department of Public Health believe the UConn student got SARS from a fellow passenger on a flight earlier this month.
But the student had been to a few classes, to the university library and to a poetry reading before becoming seriously ill. Therefore, the health department felt obligated to warn anyone who might have been in contact with the student to watch for symptoms. The alert will end April 4.
Dr. James Hadler, chief epidemiologist for the state health department, said the state doesn't believe the student was with anyone on campus long enough to spread the disease, which is generally transmitted only through close personal contact. At the same time, he said, the idea of SARS spreading through a classroom or dorm was enough to notify UConn officials.
[rest of article omitted]
Looks like SARS is already "spreading", albeit slowly, to locations other than New York City.....
- John
Funny, I was just sitting on the back porch thinking that I should go get some today before the rush.
LOL. Not yet you won't.
I did some checking yesterday. All three of the three pharmacies I checked were out of surgical masks. (Dust masks are still available.)
I spoke to the person who places orders for more supplies at one of them. She told me that there had just been a run on them. She had tried to place an order for more, but was told by her supplier that the supplier was out also. The supplier also told her not to expect to be able to order more for the foreseeable future.
If anti-West nuts
are willing to strap on bombs
and blow themselves up,
I'd imagine lots
of head cases are willing
to expose themselves
to a deadly flu
and then tour through the US
visiting every
major financial
center, having lunch, coughing,
with expensive suits...
This would have to be
the cheapest terror attack
imaginable,
yet, too, over time,
it could be the most deadly.
But I haven't heard
any officials
recommend face masks. Maybe
we worry too much...
Sounds like I've waited too long. (I guess I could get one from Dog Gone for $50 bucks.)
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