Skip to comments.
Fear spreads in China over mystery lung virus
The Times ^
| February 12, 2003
| Oliver August
Posted on 02/11/2003 3:40:14 PM PST by MadIvan
A girl wearing a surgical mask at a railway station in southern China, where panic has spread over an unidentified virus |
CHEMISTS and stores have been swamped by people in parts of southern China fearing a mystery lung virus. Some people were wearing surgical mask in the streets, despite doctors insisting that rumours were unnecessarily fanning public fears. About 300 people were in hospital with pneumonia caused by the virus, one-third of them doctors, nurses and other health workers, an official of the provincial Disease Prevention and Control Centre said.
But doctors said that so far only five people had died and not the hundreds suggested by residents in Guangdong Province near Hong Kong.
The disease is under control. Its not as serious as the rumours said. The priority now is to figure out what caused it, a doctor at the No 1 Hospital of the Guangzhou Medical School said. We did not realise it was a serious epidemic, so we did not take it seriously at the beginning.
Shoppers cleared stores of antibiotics and queued to pay inflated prices for vinegar, which many Chinese use as a disinfectant.
The panic also affected regional stock exchanges, with shares of drug companies rising, outdone only by a few vinegar-makers.
The identity of what is believed to be a virus linked to pneumonia is still not known. Leading Communist Party officials in Guangdong Province yesterday ordered an emergency team of experts to start a belated fight against the illness, which was first detected two months ago.
Governments in Hong Kong and Macau have also pleaded with residents not to panic, a likely response as the region has repeatedly been struck by deadly viruses in recent years.
Southern China is a significant source of new strains of influenza and other viruses that are often traced to the poultry industry. Bird flu in Hong Kong in 1997 killed six people and prompted the slaughter of all of its 1.4 million chickens.
Chemists and traditional Chinese herbal medicine stores reported dwindling stocks in Hong Kong as the rumours from Guangdong quickly spread. But Yeoh Engkiong, Hong Kongs Secretary for Health and Welfare, said that there was no evidence that it was affecting the city. Neither pneumonia nor influenza cases had increased, he said. Nonetheless, television showed residents queuing for vinegar.
The Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Corporation said that it had sent hundreds of boxes of anti-flu medication to pharmacies and hospitals since Saturday and was working around the clock to meet demand.
Anti-inflammatory medicines were also selling briskly. Theyre almost completely out of stock, the Xinhua state news agency said. The agency discounted reports that the virus was related to anthrax.
TOPICS: Anthrax Scare; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; contagion; firstsarsthread; flu; hongkong; pneumonia; sanfrancisco; sars; virus
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-40, 41-46 next last
Vaguely reminds me of "Captain Trips" from Stephen King's "The Stand".
Regards, Ivan
1
posted on
02/11/2003 3:40:14 PM PST
by
MadIvan
To: Blue Scourge; PhiKapMom; carl in alaska; Cautor; GOP_Lady; prairiebreeze; veronica; SunnyUsa; ...
Bump!
2
posted on
02/11/2003 3:40:33 PM PST
by
MadIvan
To: MadIvan
Hi, Ivan. There was a thread earlier today about a fellow in the US who caught a strange kind of pneumonia from bacteria in his hot tub. Hmmm.
3
posted on
02/11/2003 3:42:37 PM PST
by
Bahbah
(Pray for our Troops)
To: MadIvan
5 out 300 is still pretty bad.
4
posted on
02/11/2003 3:44:56 PM PST
by
Blackyce
(When did we start liking Canada??? Chretien is worse than Schroder, he just keeps his mouth shut.)
To: MadIvan
The Stand could happen. Are they telling Brits' to get duct tape and plastic yet?
5
posted on
02/11/2003 3:46:28 PM PST
by
bulldogs
To: MadIvan
'Vaguely reminds me of "Captain Trips" from Stephen King's "The Stand".'
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Yes-- reminds me of That too.
[The poor little girl in the photo might as well take that mask off if she is not going to wear it over her nose.]
6
posted on
02/11/2003 3:46:55 PM PST
by
Route66
(America's Mainstreet)
To: MadIvan
Your Lung Gone virus?
7
posted on
02/11/2003 3:48:06 PM PST
by
dogbrain
To: MadIvan
I won't stand next to anyone coughing in the check out line.
The Stand really brought it home.
8
posted on
02/11/2003 3:48:55 PM PST
by
tet68
(Jeremiah 51:24 ..."..Before your eyes I will repay Babylon for all the wrong they have done in Zion")
To: dogbrain
Chinese English language newspaper headline: RUNG VILUS LUNS LAMPANT.
9
posted on
02/11/2003 3:57:20 PM PST
by
AdA$tra
To: AdA$tra
You velly Bad!
10
posted on
02/11/2003 4:08:55 PM PST
by
SwinneySwitch
(LIBERATE IRAQ, SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!!)
To: AdA$tra
You velly Bad!
11
posted on
02/11/2003 4:09:07 PM PST
by
SwinneySwitch
(LIBERATE IRAQ, SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!!)
To: MadIvan
interesting .... and knowing international travel .... how long until it gets to the US ?
12
posted on
02/11/2003 4:13:51 PM PST
by
Centurion2000
(Chance favors the prepared mind.)
To: MadIvan
...only five people had died and not the hundreds suggested... The disease is under control...We did not realise it was a serious epidemic...Which is it? "Under control" or "serious epidemic"?
It's just a little .. cough ... aaggaggaggejejgeaseigalglalajljasrrrrsrasralraach!!!!
It's a white guy in a white van.
13
posted on
02/11/2003 4:19:54 PM PST
by
DannyTN
(Note left on my door by a pack of neighborhood dogs.)
To: Centurion2000
Since they discovered it 2 months ago and did basically nothing, it is already here. It will turn up soon.
14
posted on
02/11/2003 4:20:06 PM PST
by
calljack
To: Centurion2000
Norwalk virus?
To: AdA$tra
Ah Tink Yu Fa Ni!
16
posted on
02/11/2003 4:42:50 PM PST
by
4Freedom
(America is no longer the 'Land of Opportunity', it's the 'Land of Illegal Alien Opportunists'!!!)
To: vikingchick
17
posted on
02/11/2003 4:48:19 PM PST
by
spectre
(spectre's wife)
Comment #18 Removed by Moderator
To: HarryDunne
ping
19
posted on
02/11/2003 5:20:14 PM PST
by
Democratic_Machiavelli
(The most important part of a post is the sauce...I mean, source.)
To: spectre
OMG. Maybe that's what he had.
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-40, 41-46 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson