Posted on 05/23/2003 9:13:39 AM PDT by InShanghai
ONG KONG, May 23 — The World Health Organization today lifted its advisory against travel to Hong Kong and neighboring Guangdong Province in southern China, once the twin epicenters in a global outbreak of SARS, saying that the respiratory disease was being contained in both places.
The W.H.O.'s decision is the clearest sign yet that SARS is not spreading nearly as fast as once feared, although American officials have warned that it might show a resurgence next winter, the season when many other respiratory diseases are particularly prevalent.
The number of new cases reported daily in China has plunged in the last week. The disease has nearly disappeared after outbreaks in Singapore, Vietnam and Canada, while more than two dozen other countries have reported scattered cases that have not spread.
Taiwan is still having problems with severe acute respiratory syndrome, however, reporting 110 new cases in the last two days. But even there, officials are expressing confidence that they can bring the disease under control next month through better precautions in hospitals.
The W.H.O. left in place today its advisories against travel to Taiwan, Beijing and four Chinese provinces.
Today's lifting of the travel advisory coincided with an announcement by researchers here and in Shenzhen, just across the border in mainland China, that they had discovered a virus in a rare species of tree-dwelling cat that is virtually identical to the virus believed to cause SARS in humans.
Yuen Kwok-yung, a microbiologist at Hong Kong University, said that the corona virus had been found in the feces of masked palm civets, a nocturnal species found from Pakistan to Indonesia that is considered a delicacy in southern China. Some of the first known cases of SARS occurred last November among chefs and others in Guangdong Province involved in the preparation of wild game for expensive banquets.
A Chinese medical professor who had been treating infected patients brought the disease to Hong Kong, Asia's busiest transportation hub, in late February. Travelers from Hong Kong then carried the disease to Beijing, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam and Canada.
Masked palm civets have short fur that can be brown, orange, red or gray, with black bands on the head and feet. They eat mostly fruit, weigh up to 13 pounds and have bodies that grow up to two-and-a-half feet long, with tails of nearly equal length.
Judging from their activity and feeding habits, infected civets do not appear to feel any ill-effects from the virus. Only a small number of civets have been tested so far. Professor Yuen declined to say precisely how many, but most seemed to have the virus.
It is possible that the disease originated in another species and then spread to the civets, he said at a news conference this afternoon, while adding that he believed that the disease came to people from civets. While no tests have been done, it is also "theoretically possible" that household cats could become infected, as they are very similar biologically to civets, Professor Yuen added.
The raising and slaughter of civets and other exotic animals should be strictly regulated to prevent further outbreaks of SARS and possibly other new diseases, he said, while contending that a total ban on consumption of them could not succeed. "It is very difficult to stop a culture; it has been there for 5,000 years," he said.
Hong Kong reported just two new cases of SARS today, the eighth consecutive day when there have been fewer than five cases in the city.
The removal of Hong Kong from the travel advisory nonetheless came as a surprise. Almost up to the hour that the United Nations agency's decision was announced, Hong Kong officials were saying that they expected the advisory to remain in place for three more weeks because 146 people remain hospitalized here after being diagnosed with SARS.
The W.H.O. had previously said that it wanted to delay lifting the travel advisory until there were fewer than 60 active cases in hospitals here. Dr. Yeoh Eng-kiong, Hong Kong's secretary for health, welfare and food, said that local officials had just calculated that only 59 of the 146 people met the W.H.O.'s definition as active cases, while the rest were people who had already fought off SARS but remained in hospital because of other illnesses.
The disease outbreak and travel advisory have hit Hong Kong's economy badly. The autonomous Chinese territory, which has long served as a hub for travel around the region, has suffered mass cancellations on flights and in hotels.
The territory's financial secretary, Antony Leung, said that local officials would begin a campaign to revive tourism and business travel. "We will communicate to Hong Kong people and the world that Hong Kong is a safe place," he said.
I thought that the Times was going to be accurate; The Civet is NOT a Cat. So don't go destroying your pets.
Matthias Hebben: Use and influence of the Poxvirus MVA as an immunizing vector against FIPV
I can't find it. This may go a long way towards explaining the initial confusion...
That sounds like FIP in cats.
I wonder how it happened that this apparently related virus in civets was able to infect people.
Interesting, how do you know they passed it on to people and not the other way around???
However, I find it puzzling that this would be the first time that SARS was transmitted this way. This has been going on for a long time.
SARS has caused me to change a number of things in my life already and now I believe I'm going to change things again.
Better safe than sorry. :o)
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