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Rats could have been cause of Sars outbreak Latest research into the spread of the virus at a Hong Kong apartment complex overturns previous ideas. Ien Cheng reports Published: August 24 2003 18:24 | Last Updated: August 24 2003 18:24 The World Health Organisation is studying new research that points to rattus rattus - the common black rat - as a key agent in the massive spread of Sars at Amoy Gardens, the Hong Kong apartment complex where 329 people contracted the deadly virus earlier this year. The research by Dr Stephen Ng, published this month in The Lancet, the...

Mystery virus cases rising From correspondents in Hong Kong 31mar03 HONG KONG took drastic new measures today to combat a killer pneumonia as nearly 100 more cases were reported in the territory amid growing disruption to travel and business across Asia. The increasingly fraught battle to contain Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome came as the US authorities warned the virus could be more contagious than first thought and advised against travel to parts of Asia. The mysterious illness has now infected more than 1600 people in 15 countries and killed at least 59 people. It erupted in southern China, spread to...

New SARS disaster looms in BeijingBy Asia Times Online Staff HONG KONG - In recent days, a community in Beijing has been living in a state of constant anxiety. It has experienced what may prove to be as large a localized outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome as occurred in Hong Kong's now-famous Amoy Gardens, where in late March more than 300 people were infected with SARS, of whom 35 eventually died. It is obvious that some people have covered up the outbreak, and the situation has not been represented whatsoever in government-issued SARS statistics. The outbreak occurred outside of Beijing's Fifth...

A plague on our planet... for ever (Filed: 07/05/2003) The Sars epidemic is just the first of many health scares waiting for us in a highly mobile, densely populated 21st century, say scientists. It is vital that we learn all we can about managing such outbreaks as well as fighting them with technology. Roger Highfield reports Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome is only the beginning. We are set to see many more epidemics sweep across the planet in the coming decades, turning the 21st century into the era of the quarantine and face mask. At risk: one reason deadly pathogens will...

SARS virus threatens to become 21st century's first major disease PARIS (AFP) - The SARS virus, the fatal respiratory illness confounding doctors and researchers, could become the first serious new disease of the century and reach pandemic proportions in a world where people are constantly on the move. With the exception of AIDS (news - web sites), most of the worrying diseases that surfaced in the last century, like the Ebola (news - web sites) virus, never really posed a danger to public health at an international level. This was mainly because transmission of the disease between humans was never...

Cats can get Sars 15/05/2003 18:42  - (SA)     Geneva - Some cats may become temporarily infected with the Sars virus but do not appear to be able to transmit the disease, according to research in Hong Kong, a top World Health Organisation (WHO) official said on Thursday. David Heymann, head of WHO's communicable diseases unit, also told journalists that officials in China were preparing research to find out how the pneumonia-like disease might have jumped the species barrier between animals and humans. Heymann told journalists that the only studies on domestic pets like cats and dogs that he knew of had...

'Super-spreaders' of Sars are elderly: WHO   The make up of extremely infectious patients of the SARS virus, known as "super-spreaders," is becoming clearer, with many appearing to be the elderly or those already suffering medical ailments, a World Health Organization official said Monday. "Super spreaders" of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome are a handful of carriers who have infected 10 or more people, often family members and medical workers treating them. They are seen as a key link in the transmission of the respiratory disease. "We are getting more and more information on 'super spreaders' and it appears that...

The Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH) has been at the forefront of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Hong Kong.1 We relate our experience at this hospital. A working definition of SARS is important,2 although clinical conditions rarely remain within artificial boundaries. Some patients might not have all features, others may present unusually. Fever is a cardinal symptom but not always so, and is sometimes absent in elderly patients. Some patients have presented with diarrhoea or, in at least two cases, with severe acute abdominal pain requiring exploratory laparotomy. All these patients developed typical SARS. Patients presenting...

Sars virus is robust enough to survive in sewage By Steve Connor, Science Editor 06 May 2003 The virus responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) can survive outside the body much longer than previously thought, which could explain why it can spread so easily within a building. Tests by the World Health Organisation (WHO) show that the virus remains stable for up to four days in the faeces of infected people with diarrhoea. The findings could explain why more than 320 people from the Amoy Gardens apartment block in Hong Kong became infected after a man with Sars stayed...

Less than a month after scientists cracked the genetic code of the SARS coronavirus, the virus is mutating, causing new forms to emerge in Southeast Asia.Doctors at the Chinese University of Hong Kong report at least two types of SARS in the territory's hospitals.''The virus is mutating fast,'' said Dennis Lo, one of a team of microbiologists who have just finished a study on the SARS virus.''Such a quick mutation means that even if there is a cure it may become ineffective. Even a diagnostic test may not be able to detect it if it has undergone change.''Dr. Lo doesn't...

Geneva: New research into the deadly SARS virus shows that it is more resilient than first thought and can survive for weeks outside the human body. The research, published by the Geneva-based World Health Organisation, suggests that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - a flu-like epidemic that has killed at least 449 people worldwide - might be able to be spread through contact with contaminated objects and not just through direct contact with an infected person. The SARS virus can survive for hours on common surfaces outside the human body, and up to four days in human waste, according to the...

IT MAY be possible to catch the Sars virus simply by touching a contaminated table top, lift button, or doorknob, rather than being directly exposed to the sneeze or cough of a patient, scientists believe. Experiments show that Sars can survive for at least 24 hours on surfaces, and for several days in human waste. The data, due to be published on the World Health Organisation website, helps to explain how Sars has infected some patients without direct contact. Studies in Germany have found that ordinary detergents are ineffective against the virus, while Japanese laboratories have found that it can...

LONDON (AP) - New scientific findings indicate that feces may be a more important method of spreading the SARS virus than originally thought, the World Health Organization said Sunday. Although coughing and sneezing remain the chief means of spreading the infection, research conducted by government scientists in Hong Kong has found that the virus can stay alive for at least four days in diarrhea. The research adds weight to the theory that leaky sewage pipes could have been a source of infection in a particularly nasty outbreak at a Hong Kong apartment complex, where more than 300 people became ill....

Super-spreaders fan SARS fears By M.A.J. McKENNA The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Health authorities are watching uneasily for an event that could reverse their apparent success in containing the U.S. outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome: the arrival of a so-called super-spreader. There are 41 probable cases of SARS in the country, and only two sufferers were infected by other Americans. In Asia and Canada, by contrast, clusters of 20, 50 and more than 100 cases have been caused by single highly infectious individuals. A 26-year-old Singaporean infected more than 100 people -- including her parents, grandmother, uncle, brother and pastor. A...

... Sewerage 7. Each block has eight vertical soil stacks each collecting effluent from the same unit of all floors. The soil stack is connected with the water closets, the basins, the bathtubs and the bathroom floor drains. Each of these sanitary fixtures is fitted with a U-shaped water trap (U-trap) to prevent foul smell and insects in the soil stack from entering the toilets. For details, please see Annex. For this preventive mechanism to function properly, the water traps must be sufficiently filled with water. 8. Interviews with Amoy Gardens residents revealed frequent complaints about foul smell in toilets,...

Microbiologist: SARS now attacking intestines April 23 2003 The deadly SARS virus is now attacking the intestines as well as the respiratory system, a leading Hong Kong microbiologist said yesterday. Speaking on Hong Kong radio station RTHK, Professor Malik Peiris of Hong Kong University said the change might indicate the virus had mutated, as many experts feared. Professor Peiris is one of the microbiologists at the forefront of the Hong Kong research into the SARS virus, which killed another five people in the territory yesterday, bringing the total number of deaths to 99. His comments come amid growing concern that...

The killer came through the pipes. Hong Kong's largest cluster of a deadly flu-like illness was spread through leaky drains in an apartment building visited by a man infected with the disease, health officials said yesterday. The puzzling outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, at the Amoy Gardens apartment complex was traced to a mainland Chinese man suffering from diarrhea who visited his brother there in March, the besieged city's health secretary said. Faulty seals between a sewage drain and water pipes enabled the ill man to spread the virus when he used the bathroom - eventually infecting...

HONG KONG (AP) - A SARS patient with diarrhea infected other people in a Hong Kong apartment complex as the disease apparently spread into homes through a sewage pipe linked to poorly sealed water drains, an official report said Thursday. More people who came down with severe acute respiratory syndrome in Block E of the Amoy Gardens apartments also got diarrhea, creating huge amounts of contaminated feces that spread the virus through pipes in Hong Kong's biggest outbreak of the flu-like illness, said the health secretary, Dr. Yeoh Eng-kiong. Rats and cockroaches also may have spread SARS, but only incidentally...

In Hong Kong, fears are growing that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome is spreading from one housing complex to another. Around Asia, fear of the disease has pushed many governments to consider bans on visitors from infected areas. Ten days after Hong Kong sealed off a residential complex where Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome was spreading, at least 30 residents of a neighboring complex have fallen ill with the disease. Almost 1,000 people in Hong Kong have been diagnosed with SARS. A quarter of them are residents from the Amoy Gardens high-rise apartment complex. The government says many Amoy Gardens residents fled...

SARS Is Here to Stay, Hong Kong and Singapore Tell Citizens By KEITH BRADSHER HONG KONG, April 8 — Health officials in Hong Kong and Singapore warned their citizens today that the SARS virus had spread so far that it would be hard to bring under control any time soon, if ever. "Singaporeans must be psychologically prepared for the problem to stay with us for some time," said Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore's deputy prime minister. Hong Kong and Singapore began emphasizing measures to slow the spread of the disease and reduce its severity, but backed away from suggestions that the...