SARS Hits Columbus Ohio

Radio

[cq]

I have heard on two stations that one case of SARS has been reported in Franklin County. But no mention of what part of Columbus he is in only that he is a 61 year old that recently visited Hong Kong.

[cq]

Hey! I have to go to Franklin county on a regular basis. I would like to know where this Guy is so I can avoid the area. If Mayor Coleman got SARS this would be treated much more seriously then it is!

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[saluki_in_ohio]

I found this on nbc4columbus.com:


Franklin County Man Diagnosed With SARS
Health Department Says Man Traveled To Hong Kong

POSTED: 6:32 p.m. EDT April 9, 2003
UPDATED: 6:35 p.m. EDT April 9, 2003

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A 33-year-old Franklin County man was diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, Wednesday.

The Ohio Health Department said he recently traveled to Hong Kong.


There is one documented case of SARS in Cuyahoga County and several others across Ohio.

Business owners in Cleveland's Chinatown say the growing fear of the deadly new flu-like virus has driven away customers.

"Nobody comes here," said Donna Hom, owner of Li Wah restaurant. "I don't know what I should do. In here, we don't have any cases. We're all healthy."

Believed to have started in China, SARS has infected more than 2,600 people worldwide and killed at least 106, most of them in mainland China and Hong Kong.

Many in the city's Chinatown, located just east of downtown, declined to give their names or speak on the record because they partially blame news coverage of the virus for scaring away customers.

But not all Asian businesses in the Chinatown area have been affected.

Thang Nguyen, owner of the .1 Pho Vietnamese restaurant, said business was normal, although he initially feared his restaurant might lose customers with reports of the disease's spread.

Nguyen said the store "will be affected if they don't come up with a cure and the media keeps talking about it."

Most SARS victims recover with timely hospital care. The symptoms include fever, aches, dry cough and shortness of breath.

Business at the Golden Bakery on Superior Avenue and East 30th Street has been better than usual this past week, manager Treeka Wong said.

But customers have been casually inquiring about her heritage, her recent travels and where the shop gets it ingredients.

"They say, So where are you from?"' Wong said. "You have to sort of explain to them we're here 12 hours a day, six days a week. There's no way we can go back to Hong Kong. I haven't been back in 12 years."

[Rudder]

Me too, I'm going to Columbus tomorrow. No chinese restaurant food is on the intinerary now.

[Snowy]

Does anyone think that this thing has been around long before we 'noticed' it? My neighbor's daughter came down with all of these symptoms. She's about 13 or 14. I remember my neighbor telling me that she was very dizzy and had trouble breathing. She had a high fever too. Her father travels quite often overseas. She was sick about 2 weeks before SARS hit the news.

[cq]

Thanks - Again no mention of what part of Franklin County this guy is in. I also notice they report a different Age.
I have to head into Dublin today, that's real close to Columbus. YIKES!

[smith288]

"Severe Acute" ??? What kind of conflicted name is that? Doesnt sound very acute when all of China is walking around in Michael Jackson masks.

[saluki_in_ohio]

I have to head into Dublin today, that's real close to Columbus. YIKES!

I wouldn't worry about going to Dublin. Heck, I might even go to Dublin today to look at some computer parts.

[Mamzelle]

Five cases in TExas, new one in Austin.

If you would take steps to protect yourself, stay away from the emergency room. ERs seems also to be a conduit.

I suspect this is a hyped disease, but deserving of caution. The much-vaunted deadliness, for instance, has been downgraded.

If we simply *must* be globe-trotters and itchy-footed, there are consequences to be dealt with.

[aristeides]

Didn't you say there were four cases in Ohio a day or two ago? I wonder if all known cases are still being counted.

[flutters]

Didn't you say there were four cases in Ohio a day or two ago? I wonder if all known cases are still being counted.

Yes, on April 8, the news reported five cases. Three of the cases are in the Akron area. This is the first one I've heard about in Franklin county. (I don't know about the sixth). I was shocked when I first heard about the Columbus one, where I live, but I guess I've been expecting it for some time. I think we'll all be touched by this before long.

[CathyRyan]

My understanding is in the US if they even think a person might/could/possibly have sars they count them so there are a lot of changes made day to day to the list. I would bet most are not sars and are just taken off the list when they figure out what they do have.

[theFIRMbss]

>Does anyone think that this thing has been around long before we 'noticed' it?

Oh yes. It appears
it was "noticed" months ago.
But nobody's gone

back to integrate
old deaths. Officially we
have no SARS deaths...

[mommadooo3]

Wonderful news.{sarcasm} Hubby works in Columbus, landscsaping.

Anyone know how to find out WHERE this was discovered?

LOL...I just might have hubby build a shower out in the middle of the yard. Thataway, he can wash those germies clean away BEFORE he steps foot in the house.

Our 15 y.o. is at the Eqiune Affaire for the next 4 days. (another one to worry over)

[martin gibson]

Oh, please, not DING HO's...

(hilltop bump...)

[aristeides]

HK Health System on Brink (OF COLLAPSE) as SARS Spreads .

[cq]

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) will 'seriously consider' laying off staff as the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) hits the carrier hard with travellers shunning the region.

The airline has already cut a total of 125 weekly flights or 13.6 per cent of its total number of seats since the war in Iraq broke out, with services between Singapore and Hongkong slashed by 15 flights to 26 a week for instance.

Despite this, many flights are still taking off half-empty, sparking staff fears that the airline could embark on its first major retrenchment since 1982.

'Retrenchment is a step we always regard as a last resort, but sometimes there's no alternative,' an SIA spokesman yesterday said in response to queries by The Straits Times.

'Given the situation that we and many other airlines are currently facing, retrenchment is one of the options that we have to seriously consider,' he said, without giving further details.

SIA's comments came hard on the heels of an announcement by Australia's Qantas that it will slash 1,400 jobs or 4 per cent of its workforce as the war and Sars caused bookings to drop by up to a quarter on some international routes.

The airline's reference to possible retrenchments surprised Mr Mohd Hussain Kassim, general secretary of Singapore Airlines Staff Union (Siasu), which represents about 10,000 rank and file SIA staff.

'Nothing was mentioned to us (about job cuts) by the company. It surprises me because I thought the company will talk to the union first to see how best we can solve this problem,' he said.

'The company also has not briefed us in detail that capacity is down.

'I would expect the company, in all fairness, to give unions recognition. To respect the unions, the company must talk to the unions.'

Mr Hussain said that the last major retrenchment at the airline, involving about 240 staff, took place in 1982.

More recently, SIA staff took pay cuts, which enabled the airline to maintain its loss-free record even as the global airline industry suffered heavy losses following the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

In fact, the recent flight cuts have also hit the pockets of SIA's cabin crew hard.

For an SIA pilot, who earns on average $12,000 a month, the reduction in flights means he will take home less as 20-25 per cent of his pay is made up of flight allowances.

For instance, a pilot originally scheduled to fly a Singapore-Frankfurt-New York return flight would lose up to $2,600 if that flight was cancelled.

Flight attendants face a similar plight because about half of their income is made up of flight allowances.

Captain Frank John, spokesman for the Airline Pilots Association of Singapore (Alpa-S), which represents 1,600 of SIA's 1,800 pilots, said he would be 'a bit surprised' if the airline went ahead to retrench staff now.

He said there was no mention of imminent retrenchments during an Alpa-S luncheon on Tuesday with SIA's top management, including its chairman, Mr Koh Boon Hwee, chief executive officer (CEO) Cheong Choong Kong and CEO-designate Chew Choon Seng.

'It will be reasonable to expect that it (job cuts) would only come into the radar scope at some later point,' he said.

His concern was that the company may use the opportunity to trim staff with the main motive of raising productivity rather than cutting costs.

'Retrenchment for the purpose of reducing costs cannot be imminent unless there is a potential loss to the company.

'That potential must be very obvious to the workers before retrenchment can take place,' he said, adding that other options such as asking staff to clear leave or putting them on courses should be considered first.

[Rudder]

Hey, I just got back from spending two days in Columbus, and I gotta tell you I didn't see one person (cough, excuse me) drop dead. (Excuse me. Cough, hack, cough.) The weather was great (cough, wheeze) This SARS (cough) stuff is a bunch (wheeze) of (cough) bull.