SARS: with HK Chart

4/16/03 | per loin

[per loin]

Hong Kong: Hospitalized SARS (Chicom-Flu) Cases																								Chart by per loin perloin@email.com
Time			Cases				Increase			Disposition														Dead as % of prior time
Day	Date		Day	Week	Total		Day	Week		Got well			Dead			Total Gone			In Hospital			Hosp Days		Week	2 Week	3 Week	Of Gone
										Day	Total	%	Day	Total	%	Day	Total	%	Day	Total	%
Sun	03/16		5		42		13.5%												5	42	100.0%	142
Sun	03/23		25	205	247		11.3%	488.1%		0	7	2.8%	2	10	4.0%	2	17	6.9%	23	230	93.1%	1,289		23.8%			58.8%
Sun	03/30		60	283	530		12.8%	114.6%		21	64	12.1%	1	13	2.5%	22	77	14.5%	38	453	85.5%	3,674		5.3%	31.0%		16.9%
Sun	04/6		42	312	842		5.3%	58.9%		9	116	13.8%	2	22	2.6%	11	138	16.4%	31	704	83.6%	8,019		4.2%	8.9%	52.4%	15.9%
Mon	04/7		41	273	883		4.9%	44.8%		11	127	14.4%	1	23	2.6%	12	150	17.0%	29	733	83.0%	8,752		3.8%	8.8%	24.2%	15.3%
Tue	04/8		45	243	928		5.1%	35.5%		11	138	14.9%	2	25	2.7%	13	163	17.6%	32	765	82.4%	9,517		3.6%	8.7%	20.3%	15.3%
Wed	04/9		42	262	970		4.5%	37.0%		4	142	14.6%	2	27	2.8%	6	169	17.4%	36	801	82.6%	10,318		3.8%	8.5%	18.0%	16.0%
Thu	04/10		28	264	998		2.9%	36.0%		12	154	15.4%	3	30	3.0%	15	184	18.4%	13	814	81.6%	11,132		4.1%	8.2%	17.3%	16.3%
Fri	04/11		61	298	1,059		6.1%	39.2%		15	169	16.0%	2	32	3.0%	17	201	19.0%	44	858	81.0%	11,990		4.2%	7.5%	15.8%	15.9%
Sat	04/12		49	308	1,108		4.6%	38.5%		46	215	19.4%	3	35	3.2%	49	250	22.6%	0	858	77.4%	12,848		4.4%	7.4%	15.8%	14.0%
Sun	04/13		42	308	1,150		3.8%	36.6%		8	223	19.4%	5	40	3.5%	13	263	22.9%	29	887	77.1%	13,735		4.8%	7.5%	16.2%	15.2%
Mon	04/14		40	307	1,190		3.5%	34.8%		6	229	19.2%	7	47	3.9%	13	276	23.2%	27	914	76.8%	14,649		5.3%	7.7%	18.1%	17.0%
Tue	04/15		42	304	1,232		3.5%	32.8%		14	243	19.7%	9	56	4.5%	23	299	24.3%	19	933	75.7%	15,582		6.0%	8.2%	19.6%	18.7%
Wed	04/16		36	298	1,268		2.9%	30.7%		14	257	20.3%	5	61	4.8%	19	318	25.1%	17	950	74.9%	16,532		6.3%	8.6%	19.3%	19.2%
Averages			35	259			17.3%	191.2%		9		11.3%	2		3.1%	11		14.3%	26		88.4%			9.2%	18.2%	38.7%	26.3%

[per loin]

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[per loin]

Beijing - Eighteen more hospitals have been earmarked to deal with Sars patients in Beijing, state press reported on Wednesday quoting the capital's mayor Meng Xuenong.

........

It was not clear why so many hospitals were needed when official statistics show only 37 people have been affected by Sars, of whom four have died.

full story here

[per loin]

From Reuters:

BEIJING, April 16 (Reuters) - Beijing could have up to 200 "probable" cases of the flu-like SARS virus, or about five times the 37 infections reported by the government, a World Health Organisation official said on Wednesday.

"I would guess the range would be between 100 and 200," WHO official Alan Schnur told reporters when asked to estimate the number of cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in Beijing.

In WHO's medical lingo, "probable" is the equivalent of "confirmed", and differences in how China labelled cases accounted for some of the discrepancy between the WHO estimate and the official tally, Schnur said.

The Beijing government figures include four deaths.

[aristeides]

Proof SARS came from animals.

[per loin]

Scientists detect signs of deadlier SARS virus

HONG KONG - A more virulent form of SARS may be killing the young and healthy in one part of Hong Kong, a group of scientists said on Wednesday.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) mostly takes the lives of the elderly and those already sick, but since Saturday there have been more deaths reported among younger people in Hong Kong, which has been worst affected by the disease after mainland China.

The scientists from the University of Hong Kong offered no firm proof of the existence of a deadlier form of the SARS virus, and research teams in Canada and the United States have not reached similar conclusions.

Their findings are based on the condition of patients from the Amoy Gardens housing estate.

Microbiology professor Yuen Kwok-yung said the team believed the virus "has become slightly more virulent" in Amoy cases.

"Even medical staff infected by the Amoy Gardens victims are more severely ill. So it may have to do with the virus," he told reporters.

The scientists said a quarter of 1,232 people infected in Hong Kong were from Amoy Gardens. These victims were more ill than others, displayed slightly different symptoms and did not respond as well to a cocktail of drugs.

"These lead us to believe that maybe the virus itself has changed," said Yuen.

Twenty percent of Amoy victims needed intensive care, compared with only about 10 percent of other SARS patients in Hong Kong, he said.

SARS has killed 56 people in Hong Kong -- seven from Amoy Gardens. Most who died were old or already chronically sick.

Some of the younger people who died were admitted to hospital only at a later stage of the disease, and a high-profile case was a pregnant woman who died after doctors saved her baby by caesarian section.

Authorities are still trying to establish how the virus could have infected more than 320 residents in Amoy Gardens. Government officials have made a link to an infected kidney patient who visited his brother there.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has said some patients -- so-called "super-spreaders" -- pass the disease more easily.

"Perhaps some patients sneeze more, or have more virus in their nasal passages, or are infected with a more virulent strain... We wish we knew why," Julie Gerberding, director of the CDC, said on Tuesday.

Medical experts say sewage in Amoy Gardens may be to blame. Fecal particles carrying the virus have been found on kitchen sinks and toilet seats.

Sixty percent of Amoy victims also suffer from diarrhea, which causes dehydration and is an added complication for the sick, compared with only 20 percent of other Hong Kong SARS victims, said David Hui, a doctor caring for patients.

"The first victims were infected through the respiratory tract, so they have fever, headache and 20 percent had diarrhea. But the infections at Amoy's were oral-fecal, so they have diarrhea," Hui told Reuters.
Reuters/abs-cbnNEWS.com

[aristeides]

Doctors log on to fight SARS outbreak .

[whipitgood]

Is SARS media hyped to draw attention away from the war?

[blam]

"Microbiology professor Yuen Kwok-yung said the team believed the virus "has become slightly more virulent" in Amoy cases."

Just wonderful...ugh!

[blam]

"Is SARS media hyped to draw attention away from the war?"

Nah, I heard one newscaster say that if it weren't for the war news, SARS would be the top news. (We'll see.)

[CathyRyan]

No

[blam]

"Meanwhile, economists are lopping a few percentage points off of their Asia forecasts, Intel and Hewlett-Packard has temporarily closed its Hong Kong offices, and business and tourist travel to the area has plummeted."

Sounds like an economic disaster in the making. (Too!)

[11th_VA]

Bump for later

[blam]

Walt Disney And Airlines Admit SARS Virus Is Crippling Business

[CathyRyan]

Why don't we us this as this thread for today's discussion until a new system is worked out?

[Prince Charles]

"These lead us to believe that maybe the virus itself has changed," said Yuen.

Is SARS a retrovirus?

[Domestic Church]

Hewlett Packard had to shut down a facility in Toronto as well.

On another note I've been hearing of some low level allied health employees jumping ship from their careers here already. Just spoke to one who left a position after 15 years. Anyone else noticing an increase in staff turnover yet?

[LuisBasco]

I wonder if anyone has developed a theory as to whether or not the cargo containers from mainland China and HK are potential carriers of the disease?

The clothing, shoes, teddy bears (100% of all Teddies are made in China, including the one from Massachusetts) etc. could indeed harbor the germ.

Hopefully this will be a wakeup call to cease buying goods manufactured in China.

[Domestic Church]

Some are concerned it may be part of a chimeravirus program that China supposedly has set up. It's possible what they are seeing in the Amoy cases is just natural selection of the higher virulence that was evident in the superspreaders and first wave of infection from the zero case.

I suspect this was released for population control reasons but it wasn't known at the time that the respiratory aspect would be so pronounced in the human population as the rat corona virus that parallels part of this bug is highly virulent but has a negligible death rate while having the strongest effect in reducing reproduction in affected rat populations.