WHO suspects hundreds more Beijing SARS deaths

Taiwan News.com/Reuters ^ | 2003-04-18

[CathyRyan]

The World Health organization said the killer SARS epidemic is much worse in China than officials have acknowledged, after finding unreported cases at secretive military hospitals.

The WHO said the capital, Beijing, may have five times the official number of 40 deaths after visiting hospitals run by the military "which seems to have its own system of reporting," said Wolfgang Preiser of the WHO team. .

WHO Executive Director for Communicable Diseases David Heymann said the team estimated there were at least 50 SARS patients in one military hospital alone. .

"They (the WHO experts) also estimated there are between 100-200 probable cases in Beijing, more than has been reported, and they feel that there might even be up to 1,000 people who are under observation right now," Heymann told a briefing in Geneva, adding that many of those may not be SARS cases. .

The illness has already spread to a number of provinces, cities and regions in the world's most populous nation and Heymann feared the disease could spread further in coming weeks as millions of Chinese take a week-long holiday in early May. .

SARS has killed at least 65 people and infected 1,445 in mainland China -- nearly half of the world's cases -- since it first surfaced in southern Guangdong province in November. .

The virus that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome has been carried by air travellers to 23 countries, infecting more than 3,400 people and killing about 160 worldwide. .

NEW HONG KONG OUTBREAK .

Nine residents of a Hong Kong housing estate have come down with SARS, sparking fears of a repeat of an outbreak that ravaged another high-rise apartment complex recently in the territory of seven million people. .

Singapore and Hong Kong, both hit hard by the virus, have begun checking airline passengers for fevers. .

Australian authorities yesterday reported three probable SARS cases -- three children visiting from Canada -- in what could be the country's first cases. But they said the children had recovered and the disease has not spread to family members. .

The WHO officially confirmed that a member of the coronavirus family, never before seen in humans, causes the flu-like SARS, which is contagious, sometimes fatal and has no known cure. .

The finding allows scientist to focus on diagnostic tests, treatment and new vaccines -- if needed. .

Experts were optimistic the disease could be controlled using existing measures, but warned the coronavirus family tended to mutate relatively quickly. .

In a further sign of urgency, U.S. scientists have asked more than a dozen American and European healthcare companies to help develop a SARS vaccine, a process that could take years. .

"You grow the virus, kill it, and there you go. You have a vaccine. But it would still take years to actually have the vaccine in the bottle and ready to distribute," said Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in an interview. .

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson accused China of keeping information about SARS under wraps, thus letting the virus spread and claim more lives. .

"We've been very upset with the transparency of the Chinese government... We think lives could have been saved. We could have controlled it," he told Reuters in Rome. .

The criticism is bound to sting the Chinese leadership, which has taken steps to improve transparency after international condemnation for keeping quiet when SARS appeared. .

China said yesterday its economy grew 9.9 percent year-on-year in the first quarter -- the fastest pace in six years -- but SARS will cast a pall over future growth. .

Economists estimate that the epidemic has already caused at least US$30 billion in losses worldwide and will pose more of a threat to Asia's economic growth than the war on Iraq, through lower tourist earnings and reduced consumer spending.

[aristeides]

There are a lot of people from Guangdong province who work in Hong Kong, but it is thought that the disease was brought to Hong Kong by a Chinese doctor who went to Hong Kong from Guangdong province (he worked at a hospital in Guangzhou city -- Canton city) in February.

[aristeides]

Link to new thread: China hid SARS patients - report.

[_Jim]

Yeah - what aristeides wrote ...

Additionally - it was reported that this particular doctor was treating a number of these a-typical pneumonioa ('SARS') patients, not just one or two ...

[Judith Anne]

Thanks! Much appreciated! ;-D

[Judith Anne]

I wonder if he knew what he was dealing with...I've taken care of a lot of patients with pneumonia and never gotten it, with normal precautions (gloves--no mask). By the way, that doctor is dead now, as I recall...

[per loin]

Hong Kong only.

[_Jim]

I wonder if he knew what he was dealing with.

I would suspect the poor man did not have a clue. Such is the case sometimes as you brave souls in the medical profession sometimes (unfortunately, I might add) find out ...

[jetson]

He's coming

[_Jim]

What does that subtitle say in the fuzzy print below the main title?

[jetson]

" The End Of The World Is Just The Beginning"

[_Jim]

Thanks.

[EternalHope]

I just spent 20 minutes on Google and could not find a single article commenting on the 50 people released from the hospital in Hong Kong today.

Yesterday had the first article I have seen from a SARS survivors perspective. You would think reporters would be swarming all over the people released. LOTS of human interest potential.

So why so little info/articles?

Inquiring minds (and information junkies) want to know...

[per loin]

Positive news doesn't sell, and judging from that one article about the recovering nurse, released patients may not want to do much talking for a while.

[aristeides]

Four more SARS deaths in Hong Kong .

[CathyRyan]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/883335/posts

One was already ill. Professor Liu Jianlun, a 64-year-old specialist in respiratory medicine, had travelled by bus the previous day from the city of Guangzhou, in the neighbouring Chinese province of Guangdong, a three-hour journey. He had come to Hong Kong to attend a wedding – though later some doubt would be cast on his true intentions – but he quickly realised that he was not going to make it.........




......When Liu realised he was not fit to attend the wedding, instead of taking to his bed with a hot drink he went straight to the nearby Kwong Wah hospital, a pink and white concrete block five minutes' walk from the Metropole Hotel down Waterloo Road. Some now claim he had known all along that he was ill and that the story of the wedding was a cover to enable him to get to Hong Kong for treatment. Certainly, when he arrived at Kwong Wah he is said to have told medical staff: "Lock me up. Don't touch me. I have contracted a very virulent disease."


He was in a position to know. Liu had been caring for patients with the lethal disease at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital in Guangzhou for several months and he had seen what it could do. The most frightening aspect was the speed of its progression. Several viruses and bacteria can cause pneumonia, but in this case patients deteriorated suddenly, becoming breathless in a few days. Many needed intensive care and artificial ventilation to keep them alive.

Unfortunately, the doctors at Kwong Wah had never seen a patient with the illness before and did not know what the professor was talking about. Although the first recorded case was in Foshan, Guangdong province on 16 November last year, the Chinese authorities did not inform the World Health Organisation of the outbreak until mid-February, and WHO officials were still working to confirm it. Had they had earlier warning, the disease might have been contained in mainland China and the rest of the world spared.
(bits and pieces from the post)

Is this who you are talking about? I thought I read somewhere else he was an Nephrologist. Sorry for butting in...

[CathyRyan]

I also reading somewhere that he did attend the wedding and that some of the guests got sick. Anyone remember that article? I think I am going to go sit in the corner for awhile. I think I am spending to much time on sars. LOL

[EternalHope]

Thanks.

I should have made my point a little better: I was looking for articles that focused on the released patients as the main point of the article. Couldn't find ANY.

[Judith Anne]

Cathy--I really value your comments...yes, that's the guy I was thinking of, exactly...EternalHope's (?) comments about the article on the "recovered" nurse was very discouraging to me...she's still really weak and possibly permanently damaged.

I'm intensely curious about this, because of what I see as a potential future outbreak in the US this fall...Most certainly I could be wrong, and I certainly hope so.

Thank you for everything you do with posting and pinging. I really appreciate it. Because of you and others like you, FR has some of the most up-to-date information on this disease available anywhere on the internet. Even though sometimes the information seems contradictory and scattered, it's useful--readers can sort it out for themselves and make personal decisions.

I commend per loin, aristeides, blam, Mother Abigail--everyone who makes a contribution to the greater knowledge.
Please don't sit in a corner. ;-D

[EternalHope]

I also reading somewhere that he did attend the wedding and that some of the guests got sick. Anyone remember that article?

The article was quite a while ago, but my recollection is that he did NOT go to the wedding. As I recall, the article did not say how much contact he had with the people involved before the wedding however.

[EternalHope]

I think I am going to go sit in the corner for awhile. I think I am spending to much time on sars. LOL

Same here.

I'll be gone all weekend, away from FR. Maybe I'll recover by Monday. LOL!