SARS Spreads To China's Army

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 5-14-2003 | Richard Spencer

[blam]

Sars spreads to China's army

By Richard Spencer in Beijing
(Filed: 14/05/2003)

Sars has struck China's three million-strong military, the World Health Organisation said yesterday - just as the number of cases in the country appeared to be heading downwards.

The number of new Sars patients in China was less than 100 yesterday, and the number of cases in Beijing less than 50 for the fourth day running. Ten people died, bringing the total to 262 in China.

But the government's promises of new openness in its "war on Sars" came into renewed question when it was left to a WHO adviser to disclose that he had discovered the outbreak in the People's Liberation Army.

Eight per cent of Beijing's 2,000 cases - about 150 to 160 people - were military personnel, Philippe Barboza said.

He added that the full significance of the finding could not be judged, as he had been given no details of the patients. "The records do not say who they are, where they caught the disease, even often their sex," he said.

Living conditions in the armed forces make an ideal breeding ground for the Sars virus, which has most commonly been passed on by close personal contact. The PLA's traditional secretiveness makes it unlikely that the WHO will be allowed to inspect facilities and monitor the epidemic in the military.

WHO officials said yesterday they were impressed with the efforts made to contain the disease in the province around Beijing - Hebei - the first rural area inspected.

[Allan]

What you maybe remembering is that civilians were moved to military hospitals
early on in the Chinese sars epidemic.

Or so they claim.

[Walkingfeather]

Here is one of the reason the Chicoms are hiding.... 2012 Olympic games.

This is supposed to be their comming out party.... They are trying to modernize like Mad. They need this to gain recognition internationally. So far they have painted themselves into a corner and tripped out of it like the three stooges.

[Mitchell]

Thanks for the ping.

By the way, I'm starting to like "pung". Maybe it will catch on again.

[CathyRyan]

There was a story early on about a farmer became ill (around chinese new years) with sars and was treated at an area hospital he then was moved to a military hospital. The family said that they were pleased when he was moved to a military hospital. Maybe someone remembers the article and can point you to it. It was posted in eary April IIRC.

Wonder if he and others that were moved could have early on exposed PLA personnel to sars? Wonder if the PLA could have been battling sars for some time now?

[xp38]

The Beijing Summer Olympic games are in 2008.

[Walkingfeather]

sorry thought greece was 2008

[Prince Charles]

Bump...

[heleny]

Athens, Greece: 2004
Peking, China: 2008

[Allan]

The report I heard tonight is
that a senior Lieutenant General brought SARS
into the VIP compound of Peking
in early November.

They used as a cover story that a maid was the carrier.

The question now is
how many senior military figures have been infected?

Many have not been seen in public or on TV for some time.

[Judith Anne]

Early on, China was not reporting cases in military hospitals AT ALL, said it was a matter of national security or something, and they didn't have to.

Now, they are acknowledging military cases. In my opinion, since Chinese lies have marked this from the beginning, there are likely huge numbers infected in the military.

One of the other things that just haunts me daily is that the Chinese nurses' aides who get SARS don't get treatment, because they can't afford it--they are very low paid, and when they get sick, they just....go away....I doubt their numbers are counted, or even known...

[aristeides]

The report I heard tonight is that a senior Lieutenant General brought SARS into the VIP compound of Peking in early November.

Early November? That's very early. That would be consistent with the disease starting in the PLA, possibly as a result of a bioresearch mishap.

[heleny]

Beijing's new cases for the last five days: 48..54..42..48..48. Almost as though someone had decided that an appropriate average at this stage of their containing SARS would be 48 new cases per day.

Well, now. That just won't do to have people noticing the scheme. It's about time for them to issue the next pre-planned target. Since the goal is eradication within a few weeks, the new averages for the next weeks might be around 24, then 12, 6, 3, 1, and then full control before the end of June, except they might add a little more "noise" to the numbers.

Thanks for the keen observation and for keeping track of the numbers in Hong Kong and Beijing.

[per loin]

The Chinese tendency is to think in sets of five. The five elements, directions, tissues, etc. After that set of five on 48, they dropped today's number to 39. One can almost hear the clink, clank, clunk of the party bureaucracy thinking.