CHINA CONFIRMS CASES AND DEATHS (SARS) - HONG KONG SITUATION DETERIORATING - 22 CASES IN US

Washington Post ^ | 03-22-03

[Mother Abigail]

Mysterious Illness Kills 2 In Beijing in Sign of Spread

Saturday, March 22, 2003; Page A03

BEIJING, March 21 -- Chinese doctors today reported two deaths in Beijing and 20 people stricken in Shanghai by a disease with symptoms similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome.

The doctors' statements cast doubt on Chinese government pronouncements that the spread of the disease, also known as SARS, had been limited to Guangdong province, in southern China, where it is believed to have originated. State-controlled media have been banned from reporting about the disease since mid-February.

Full Article

[Mother Abigail]

Done

[keri]

Me too, Mother?

[CathyRyan]

six maybe last time I heard

[tallhappy]

Chinese doctors today reported two deaths in Beijing and 20 people stricken in Shanghai by a disease with symptoms similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome.

These articles are surreal. This disease was first reported in China last fall.

It was called atypical pneumonia at the time.

Here is a thread from Februrary about it, Fear spreads in China over mystery lung virus .

Fears about it in China were so great that entire stocks of vinegar were sold out, as people there would simmer it to keep the air acidic in their houses.

Chinese officials would say only 5 people died, and about 300 had been infected. But they did not provide any info and services to WHO or other health organizations.

People in China thought many more had died. I saw a report saying 280 people had died.

There's something rotten in Denmark.

This disease is serious, but does not merit panic.

But the irresponsibility of the communist Chinese government in trying to cover up problems has now harmed a lot more than just China.

[tallhappy]

A CHRONOLOGICAL COMPILATION OF THE "SARS" OUTBREAK AS REPORTED ON FREE REPUBLIC

Wrong, totally wrong.

This has been reported and talked about here much before your posts.

Initially it was refered to as atypical pneumonia in China.

The scandal is that a major disease outbreak in China was ignored by us and covered up by the Chinese.

I linked above to just one of the threads.

[Mother Abigail]

Yes of course there are many other threads on this subject, both before and after.

I have just tried to make it easy for the "regulars" on these threads to go back and forth to our earlier threads. Great reading...

In no way meant for the list to be exclusive, and will add any links you suggest. Sorry if you took offense.

Regards

[Mother Abigail]

My pleasure

[united1000]

Would you also add my name to your list, thank you.

[tallhappy]

The level of stange misinformation on this bothers me.

The culpability of our health officials and the Chinese government need to be known as well.

I see these articles and they hardly mention that this has already cause panic in China months ago.

It is surreal and frustrating.

[Mother Abigail]

U.S. warns of travel to Vietnam because of mysterious respiratory illness

WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department on Saturday advised Americans to reschedule nonessential travel to Vietnam because of the mysterious flu-like illness that has sickened hundreds of people in Asia.

A department spokesman, Lou Fintor, said an American who traveled in northern Vietnam was recently diagnosed with the disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.

In order to limit any possible exposure, U.S. government officials in Vietnam have decided to defer all nonessential travel to Hanoi and other areas in northern Vietnam near the border with China.

Additionally, because of reduced availability of adequate medical facilities, the State Department has suspended official travel to Vietnam until further notice.
Medical services in Hanoi have been diminished dramatically by the closure of the city's only adequate hospital facility and reduced operations by the two main outpatient facilities because of the SARS emergency.

[bonesmccoy]

Thanks for the courtesy ping.
We're getting more info from this board than local "public health".

Apparently, the liberal public health system is more interested in figuring out how to write grants for anti-tobacco campaigns. (really!)

[Mother Abigail]

The situation in China may be coming to light.

I am gathering info on China for a later post

Canada

As of 21 Mar 2003, Health Canada has received reports of 9 individuals who have become ill with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Ontario and British Columbia. These cases have either recently traveled to Hong Kong or have had close contact with these individuals. The details of the cases to date are as follows:

Ontario: In a single family, 3 people have been admitted to hospital with severe pneumonia of unknown cause, 2 other members have died. In addition, individuals (2) with close contact with this family have been admitted to hospital. Also in Ontario, a separate, unrelated case who had traveled recently to Hong Kong has also been admitted to hospital.

British Columbia: one person has been admitted to hospital with SARS.

[Mother Abigail]

done

[Mother Abigail]

The laboratory results continue to point the finger towards a member of the paramyxovirus family. In the above release from Health Canada, they have identified the virus as a human metapneumovirus (hMPV), a "newer" member of the paramyxovirus family.

One of the earlier descriptions of the hMPV (van den Hoogen BG, et al. A newly discovered human pneumovirus isolated from young children with respiratory tract disease. Nat Med 2001; 7(6): 719-24) was reported in ProMED-mail (Paramyxoviruses, new human pathogen - Netherlands 20010603.1094). All of these results are suggesting more and more that the paramxyovirus family may be the etiology of SARS. - M

[Eowyn-of-Rohan]

So sorry about your loss...The CDC Web site listed six cases in California; three in Hawaii; two each in the states of North Carolina, New York and Virginia; and one case each in Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Utah and Wisconsin

[tallhappy]

The situation in China may be coming to light.

This is what I mean by surreal and frustrating.

It came to light months ago. We talked about it here at FR. There were some articles in the western press.

I'm looking and see 100 articles on "atypical pneumonia" before the WHO warning jumpstarted coverage of this.

Here is just one from immediately before this "broke" as major news.

Copyright 2003 South China Morning Post Ltd.  
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
March 14, 2003
SECTION: FEATURE; Pg. 1

LENGTH: 582 words

HEADLINE: Virus hits three more hospitals; Critics claim earlier warnings may have curbed the outbreak, as staff say they were only told of the danger days after flu emerged

BYLINE: Mary Ann Benitez

BODY:
The mystery flu outbreak spread to three more hospitals yesterday, prompting critics to claim staff and patients at the Prince of Wales Hospital should have been alerted earlier over the virus to help contain it.

Thirty-nine medical staff were last night in hospital, 24 with atypical pneumonia, and 10 patients who are not hospital employees were admitted with pneumonia to the Eastern Hospital, a signal that the outbreak might be spreading into the community.

A 49-year-old Chinese-American businessman who was flown from Hanoi on March 6 died yesterday of atypical pneumonia at the Princess Margaret Hospital.

The World Health Organisation issued a global alert on Wednesday over outbreaks of the respiratory ailment in Guangdong, Hanoi and Hong Kong.

A medical worker at Prince of Wales Hospital apparently showed flu symptoms on March 3, but it was not until last Saturday that the worker admitted himself to hospital with two other staff, the Post has learned.

However, no public alert was put out until Monday, and employees at the Prince of Wales Hospital said notices were only sent to staff about the pneumonia outbreak on Wednesday.

One employee said: "I only learned that some staff on the ward were sick on Monday. Superficially, I cannot say there has been a delay, but we were not told about it formally, we were told only by colleagues working in the medical department. It wasn't until Wednesday that the hospital got round to sending out a staff memo."

Patients' Rights Group spokesman Ho Hei-wah said an early alert could have prevented more hospital workers from being infected.

"Probably not as many people would have been infected if the medical staff had been more alert," Mr Ho said.

Iris Chan Sui-ching, chairwoman of the Alliance of Patients' Mutual Help Organisations, said the Prince of Wales Hospital should have issued warnings to patients so they could seek treatment in other hospitals to avoid the risk of infection.

Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong yesterday announced he had set up a special intergovernmental taskforce and an expert committee on the disease.

He said the infection attacked hospital workers and close relatives who had been caring for sick patients, with a high proportion of those affected suffering from atypical pneumonia.

"The very peculiar features of this outbreak of pneumonia is that although the symptoms are very common to most respiratory illnesses and pneumonias - where you have fever, sore throat, muscle aches and cough - the outbreak seems to occur in hospital environments. And the predominant people who were affected were staff caring for patients," Dr Yeoh said.

He said that so far, no agent had been identified as the cause of the infection, but preliminary tests had ruled out the H5N1 bird-flu virus and legionella bacteria.

Hospital Authority chief executive William Ho Shiu-wei said they were tracing the medical records of Ward 8A patients at the Prince of Wales Hospital to identify the patient who may have infected staff.

As of 6pm yesterday, 112 hospital workers had reported sick with flu-like symptoms. Of those, 39 are in hospital, with two in serious condition. Twenty -four have atypical pneumonia, said Dr Ho.

Eighteen are in the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin, two are in the Eastern Hospital in Chai Wan, three are in the Kwong Wah Hospital in Yau Ma Tei, and one is in the private Union Hospital, also in Sha Tin.

GRAPHIC: (Photo: Robert Ng); Patients in the emergency ward of Prince of Wales Hospital don masks to protect themselves from the flu.

LOAD-DATE: March 15, 2003

[Mother Abigail]

FIRST ALARM

Date: 10 Feb 2003

From: Stephen O. Cunnion, MD, PhD,

This morning I received this e-mail and then searched your archives and found nothing that pertained to it. Does anyone know anything about this problem?

"Have you heard of an epidemic in Guangzhou? An acquaintance of mine from a teacher's chat room lives there and reports that the hospitals there have been closed and people are dying."
--

Stephen O. Cunnion, MD, PhD, MPH
International Consultants in Health, Inc Member ASTM&H, ISTM

[tallhappy]

Here's another one:

Copyright 2003 South China Morning Post Ltd.  
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
February 21, 2003
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 3

LENGTH: 425 words

HEADLINE: News blocked by Guangzhou TV'; Residents accuse their government of pulling the plug on the story

BYLINE: Leu Siew Ying in Guangzhou

BODY:
Guangzhou residents have accused their government of blocking news from Hong Kong television channels about the latest bird flu outbreak.

"I heard the news on Hong Kong television news last night but the transmission was interrupted midway," said one businesswoman. "I tend to think it's H5N1 because a friend who is a nurse told us so. You can't believe the government because they cover up a lot of things."

The woman said she was not worried by the H5N1 case but she would stay away from crowds.

"It's useless to be frightened. Even during the panic over the mystery flu in Guangdong I did not stock up on salt, rice or oil," she said.

A 26-year-old IT engineer said she had also heard the news on Hong Kong television but the report on her channel was not blocked. "This will not affect my lifestyle. I will continue to eat chicken," she said.

Bird flu is a virus and is not transmitted by eating infected chicken.

Both Hong Kong's TVB and ATV channels are received in Guangdong.

Public relations executive Yang Yi said he had not heard the news but was not worried. Mr Yang said the barrage of information about the 1997 outbreak had left Guangzhou people with information fatigue. They thought Hong Kong people were overreacting to the illness, he added.

Chen Jiasheng, a senior protocol officer at the Guangdong foreign affairs office, denied that the government had intercepted the television signals.

"This is not government behaviour. The government did not order a news blackout. Some overzealous television official probably took it upon himself to block the broadcast because he thought it was sensitive."

Guangdong health department spokesman Feng Shaoming said they had still not received news from the Hong Kong or Fujian authorities about the flu.

"The Hong Kong reports are exaggerated. We will monitor the event but not the illness as there is no such illness in Guangzhou."

Guangdong officials have said the flu outbreak in the province, which they termed atypical pneumonia, was not avian flu, anthrax or plague.

Officials said five people were killed by the pneumonia and 305 others infected. Up to Monday, 94 of the 192 people admitted to hospitals in Guangzhou had recovered and been discharged.

State television said yesterday that there had been six new cases since the official figures were released last Monday by the health department. The situation cannot be said to have stabilised until 10 days have passed without any new cases being reported, the report said.

LOAD-DATE: February 21, 2003

[Mother Abigail]

What I am referring to is the lack of information and cooperation from the Chinese authorities.

We have been told that the situation is "under control"

Is it?

Some of the posters on this board have been following the atypical pneumonia outbreak from its onset.

Is there any additional information on the China SARS situation that you can add to our discussion?

[tallhappy]

Has been active in China. Caused panic, so it must have been significant and worse than official Chinese pronouncements.

Even today Chinese government is talking as if SARS is not atypical pneumonia.