Posted on 03/30/2003 1:03:37 PM PST by Lessismore
There was some good and bad news over the weekend in the continuing fight against atypical pneumonia.
The good: the first medical staff - nine of them - from the Prince of Wales Hospital won their battle against the deadly virus, showing the public that one could recover from the disease.
The bad: the number of infections continued to rise, with numbers from Amoy Gardens growing at an unusually fast rate that even the government had to acknowledge was worrying.
As of last night, 121 people at the residential complex in Kowloon Bay were suffering from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), out of a total of 530 struck down in the past three weeks. The news drove more residents to move out while the reason why it had spread so fast remained a mystery.
The rapid spread of the virus at Amoy Gardens prompted Director of Health Margaret Chan to admit airborne transmission could be a possibility. The government should now look seriously into that possibility and any others. The rate of infection at Amoy Gardens is shocking.
Hong Kong begins its quarantine measures today, requiring more than 1,000 people who have been in close contact with those stricken by the virus to report to designated clinics for checks. The number will rise significantly given the rapid spread in Amoy Gardens. The measure has raised concern that those travelling to the clinics will spread the disease. The government should monitor that closely, and if necessary, health officials should conduct the checks at people's homes instead. Hong Kong needs to unite and fight. Outspoken government critic Bishop Joseph Zen delivered a positive message yesterday. It was time to put aside differences and appreciate the work being done, he said.
Zen's remarks contrasted with those of former mainland vice-trade minister Long Yongtu during his stay in Hong Kong last week. Long said the Hong Kong media should be more ``impartial'' in its coverage of the disease.
He said: ``If Hong Kong newspapers are splashing with front-page stories about pneumonia for 10 days, 20 days or 30 days, who will dare come to Hong Kong? ... It would only be a panic situation if 500,000 people out of six million caught the virus. There are only several hundred at the moment.''
That remark may give us some idea why it took more than four months for mainland authorities to release infection figures since the first case broke in November. Had they been more forthcoming, perhaps Hong Kong would have been spared a crisis of the present magnitude.
A Prince of Wales Hospital doctor told a television programme at the weekend that ``a very senior government official'' had told him shortly before the outbreak in Hong Kong that the situation in Guangdong was contained and the territory had no need to worry.
That official should now know he was too naive by far.
This disease has provided a lesson for many, including our officials.
Well, you are right this is good news, still, all of these cases were probably young healthy people given every opportunity imaginable. The real question is can we expect to see similar rates of recovery across the full spectrum of age/health cases?
That's smart. Let the infected spread out around the city, move into other apartment complexes, spread SARS far and wide.
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