Chinese health official says SARS disaster still looms

BEIJING (AFP) - China was facing disaster in its fight against SARS (news - web sites) and the epidemic was far from over despite a recent fall in the number of new cases, a leading Chinese health official said.

"In light of the spread patterns of SARS, we are fully aware that the fight against SARS in China is far from being over," Gao Qiang, vice minister of health, told an international meeting on the outbreak.

"The SARS epidemic is a disaster facing the whole of mankind, China is the largest victim and the Chinese people have suffered greatly."

The country's health system faced "major tasks" in preventing potential relaspes and the renewed spread of the mysterious respiratory disease, he said Tuesday.

China recorded no new SARS cases Tuesday for the first time since April 20 when the government began reporting daily on the outbreak, but Gao said that was not enought to drop vigilance against the disease.

"The SARS epidemic situation has just been relieved and there are still unstable elements to be eliminated," Gao told the meeting.

"We must maintain sharp vigiliance and continue prevention and treament initiations unremittingly. We shall not relax until complete success of the fight against SARS has been achieved."

Health officials from China, Japan, South Korea (news - web sites) and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations gathered for a two-day meeting to discuss SARS.

China has recorded 5,328 SARS cases and 334 fatalities since the outbreak began in southern Guangdong province last November and spread world wide, but since May 26 the number of daily new cases has been below 10 nationwide.

Globally, there have been 8,394 recorded SARS cases and 772 fatalities as of Monday.

From: http://www.rense.com/general37/launch.htm

Rense.com

Chinese Launch Sars
War On Public Spitting
By Richard Spencer in Beijing
5-20-3

In a fresh drive to combat Sars, squads of health workers began scouring the streets of the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou at the weekend to crack down on the common habit of spitting.

Cities across China have launched a campaign to clean up health hazards and improve awareness of public hygiene in an effort to stem the spread of the deadly new viral pneumonia.

Guangzhou - formerly known as Canton and the capital of Guangdong province where the Sars outbreak first appeared in November - has joined the campaign with a vengeance. About 1,000 public health workers have been sent out in teams to pounce on locals violating anti-spitting bye-laws.

They have been given tough powers to fine miscreants 50 yuan - 10 times the usual rate and the equivalent of almost £4, which is a large sum in low-wage China. Other major cities are also said to be increasing fines. Citizens who drop cigarette butts, chewing gum or rubbish, or urinate in a public place, also face stiff fines.

The traditional practice of energetic throat-clearing in public has long been officially frowned on by the authorities, but largely to no effect. It is seen by many people as a necessary antidote to the dust and winter colds common in Chinese cities.

But with the Sars virus posing a public-health and economic crisis, hygiene has become an official obsession. Almost two-thirds of the world's cases of the virus have been reported on the Chinese mainland, where the government said yesterday that 240 people had died and 4,948 had been infected by it.

Hong Kong, which records separate figures, has also been badly hit. After one large Sars cluster was traced to a leaky sewerage system in a tower block in the territory last month, the local government became the first to order a general clean-up.

More than 21,000 people who had lost their jobs in the disease's economic fall-out were hired to go round Hong Kong doing useful chores, from scrubbing the homes of old people to picking up rubbish.

Then the government in Beijing sent out a notice to workplaces to "mobilise the broad masses". Suddenly, old alleyways once heaped with old fruit skins and worse were sparkling in the spring sunshine.

As for spitting, one Beijing newspaper launched its own campaign. "At this crucial moment, some uncivilised habits of the citizens are under re-examination," said the Beijing Morning Post.

"Recently, many citizens have suggested rectifying the bad habit of spitting. The Sars virus can survive four to six hours in the air and even longer in sputum. The bad habit of spitting will definitely make Sars prevention more difficult."

The response was immediate. The next day's issue devoted columns to callers who had rung in with their views. "Those who lack social ethics and public morality should be punished heavily," said a Miss Li.

"The report is a reminder of those who lack public morality, and I hope the government can issue punishment regulations as soon as possible - the more severe the better. At a time of the Sars epidemic, spitting is equivalent to killing people."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2003/05/13/wsars13.
xml&sSheet=/global/2003/05/20/expatres.html

From: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/123870_chinaspit28.html

China fights SARS -- and spitting

A venerable tradition falls into disrepute because of the danger of spreading disease
BEIJING -- As Liu sped along the path at Bei Hai Park, the rumbling in his throat became louder and more intense. A restaurant cleaner, Liu had a dollop of phlegm to dispose of, and was rushing around the lake to go out the park's west gate.
"No one would dare spit in here these days -- you'd get fined a lot and no one's paying wages," said Liu, who claimed he was recently laid off because SARS had decimated his restaurant's business.
"In the past, no one cared. You spat where you liked. But with SARS, everyone's paying a lot of attention."
In its battle against severe acute respiratory syndrome, China is tackling a unique challenge: Spitting is a longstanding Chinese tradition, and spitting potentially spreads SARS.
As a result, to supplement temperature checks and hand-washing posters, the Chinese government has contributed a new weapon to the world's war against SARS: Little white plastic spit bags that are handed out in parks and malls, the hardware for a wide-scale anti-spitting campaign.
Last week, on Wanfujing shopping street, volunteers dressed as Lei Feng, the legendary Chinese soldier and do-gooder, pressed bags into the palms of passers-by. At the gate of Bei Hai Park last weekend, pretty girls wearing sashes promoting the 2008 Olympics manned a table where bags were dispensed.
The bags read: "Spitting on the ground is dangerous to your health and spit contains infectious diseases. But with one small bag in your hands your health will always be invincible."
This week, the Communist Party Central Committee's Spiritual Civilization Office gave its imprimatur to the war against spit, issuing a "Directive on Launching Activities to Transform Vile Habits."
But old habits die hard and in China there is hardly an older or more visceral habit than this one, practiced frequently by lowly peasants as well as powerful leaders. Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader who ushered in the era of economic reforms, was a famous spitter, renowned for his aim.

Until recently, in fact, Chinese leaders had ceramic spittoons placed by their chairs during banquets and ceremonies to greet kings, politicians and business executives. In Chinese culture, spitting was not regarded as particularly offensive, and was far less disgusting than nose-blowing, for example.
But as China opened its doors to the outside world, its leaders quickly realized that other cultures took a less benign view of the arcs of phlegm that filled China's air.
In recent years, the government has begun several campaigns to discourage the habit, but until now has met with limited success. The floors of train stations and hotel lobbies were still dotted with drying gobs, and the sidewalks have become a kind of obstacle course, to be navigated with care.
Along came a little coronavirus that could live in phlegm, and attitudes quickly changed. Newspapers are filled with anti-spitting propaganda.
Just as New York's new restrictions on smoking have set off battles between smokers and non-smokers, Beijing has seen a rise in nasty brawls between die-hard spitters and their foes.
But no one is suggesting that spitters give up the habit altogether -- just that they avoid spitting on the ground. For most older Chinese men, phlegm is regarded as an unavoidable byproduct of heavy smoking and also pollution, and it is taken for granted that it must go somewhere. The government recommends that phlegm be spat into a tissue or a spit bag, and then thrown in a bin.
"I used to spit, but not anymore since we are paying a lot more attention to ordinary hygiene," said Lu Xiufeng, 68, a retired machinist in Bei Hai. "You wait and then use a tissue when you have to spit."
But as he spoke, he kept clearing his throat, his face becoming uncomfortable and his voice increasingly hoarse as the minutes passed.

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