SARS Is Here to Stay, Hong Kong and Singapore Tell Citizens

The New York Times ^ | April 8, 2003 | Keith Bradsher

[EternalHope]

SARS Is Here to Stay, Hong Kong and Singapore Tell Citizens By KEITH BRADSHER

HONG KONG, April 8 — Health officials in Hong Kong and Singapore warned their citizens today that the SARS virus had spread so far that it would be hard to bring under control any time soon, if ever.

"Singaporeans must be psychologically prepared for the problem to stay with us for some time," said Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore's deputy prime minister.

Hong Kong and Singapore began emphasizing measures to slow the spread of the disease and reduce its severity, but backed away from suggestions that the disease could be eradicated.

Dr. Leung Pak-yin, Hong Kong's deputy director of health, said residents should be concerned about possible environmental contamination if many cases developed in their apartment buildings.

"We believe that every citizen could become a carrier of the virus," he said, especially if people do not take preventive measures like washing their hands and wearing face masks. Hong Kong University researchers have found evidence suggesting that many people come in contact with the virus without actually falling seriously ill.

Mr. Lee and Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong's chief executive, both warned of serious harm to their cities' economies because of the outbreak, which has particularly hurt the airline, hotel, retailing and restaurant industries. "This SARS has now a profound long-term impact on our economy and it is a very serious matter," Mr. Tung said at a news conference this evening.

Hong Kong reported 45 new cases today, including the infections of 18 health care workers, as well as the deaths of two elderly men who were infected with SARS but had other health problems as well. Figures for new cases over the last several days have included 30 cases at the Ngau Tau Kok apartment complex, which had not previously been affected, Dr. Leung said.

The disease has already infected close to 300 people in the nearby Amoy Gardens apartment complex, and it appears that people from the Ngau Tau Kok complex had been visiting Amoy Gardens, Dr. Leung added.

Until today, Hong Kong health officials had discouraged the everyday use of face masks, saying that regular hand washing was more important. But Dr. Leung endorsed the use of face masks tonight.

He did not draw a distinction between cloth surgical masks of the sort that doctors have worn for decades and the newer, cupped respirators that doctors wear in some of the most hazardous rooms.

Some doctors here have expressed concern that while the respirators filter more out of the air, they may be less effective for the lay user than a surgical mask because the respirators are so uncomfortable that they prompt wearers to touch their faces to adjust them. This can spread the virus to the eyes, nose or mouth and then into the body, causing an infection.

In one of the more unusual health tips here lately, government officials also said it might help if people were to close toilet lids when flushing, and to clean the underside of the lid and the toilet seat with a bleach solution later. Preliminary analyses of the outbreak at Amoy Gardens suggest that it was spread by sewage, partly from toilets that backed up into neighbors' apartments and partly from cockroaches that tracked tiny amounts of virus-tainted sewage through homes, they added.

[CathyRyan]

Guangzhou was the home of a 64-year old professor of nephrology

The person said to have brought Sars to Amory Gardens was a kidney patient.

[riri]

No New CARS Canadian Deaths

[flutters]

At this point lets just hope you can only get this once and not 2 to 3 times a year like a cold.

Now that is a scary thought. Has anyone caught it twice?

[flutters]

I'm sorry to hear that. I wish her the best. You'll both be in my prayers.

[flutters]

Ohio has 5 reported cases now. I heard it on the news tonight so I don't have a link.

[CathyRyan]

At least 45 new cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) were reported in Hong Kong, the epicenter of the global spread. That brought the total in that international gateway to 928. At least 25 residents have died.

[I. M. Trenchant]

In the case of the devastating Spanish Flu epidemic at the end of WWI, the first wave of disease in the Spring of the year had a relatively low mortality rate, but what is believed to have been the same virus seems to have mutated, and by the autumn of the year, initiated a second wave of infection that led to the massive loss of life. So, I guess the stats are lacking, but I'd suppose that many who survived the less virulent wave in the Spring may have had limited, but improved resistance to the second infection in the autumn -- and indeed, this may have been why the mortality of the second epidemic wasn't even worse than it was.