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.
Some restaurant patrons "pick" a live animal for slaughter/preparation. An infected live animal AT A RESTAURANT, exposed to the public, is asking for disaster.
The tests found a virus that appeared virtually identical to the SARS virus in saliva and feces of six catlike animals, known as masked palm civets. The researchers directly isolated virus from four of the animals and found pieces of genetic material from the microbe in two others. Tests also showed genetic evidence of the virus in feces of another animal, known as a raccoon dog, and an eighth animal, a Chinese ferret badger, had antibodies to the virus in its blood. None of the animals was sick.
A detailed genetic analysis of the virus isolated from the animals found it was identical to the SARS virus from human patients except that it lacked one sequence. The missing genetic material carries instructions for the production of a small protein, known as a peptide, and may have been the change that allowed the virus to jump to humans and then spread readily, Stohr said.
"The lack of this peptide may have helped the virus transmit efficiently from human to human," Stohr said. "Perhaps that missing piece of protein is just the trick, the little difference between a harmless animal virus and a human pathogen. That's a bit of speculation, but this is one hypothesis."
Masked palm civet belongs to Viverridae. Ferret badger belongs to Mustelidae. What kind of animal is a raccoon dog?
Let it be noted that domestic cats in this market tested did not show signs of infection with the virus in question.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.