SARS

[owenkrout]

China Sacks Health Minister, Party Official -Xinhua

Sun April 20, 2003 06:12 AM ET

 

BEIJING (Reuters) - China sacked Health Minister Zhang Wenkang and Beijing Deputy Party boss Meng Xuenong on Sunday, just hours after officials disclosed a tenfold leap in the number of SARS cases in Beijing.

"Zhang Wenkang was removed from the post of the secretary of the leading Party members' group of the Ministry of Health of the Communist Party of China (CPC)," the official Xinhua news agency said in a terse one paragraph report.

 

"Meng Xuenong was removed from the post of the deputy secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee," it said.

 

No reason was given.

 

Rumors had been circulating over the past several days over the fate of both men over their handling of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which has killed 79 in China and infected 1,807.

 

On Sunday, China increased its number of SARS cases in Beijing to 339, and added 402 suspected cases and 18 deaths. City officials had previously maintained there were only 37 cases in the capital and the minister had declared it "safe to travel to China."

[owenkrout]

Golden Holiday has been cancelled. Guess that means that I need to plan lessons for another 4 days.

 

Beijing SARS Cases Leap, China Scraps Golden Week

Sun April 20, 2003 04:43 AM ET

By Benjamin Kang Lim and John Ruwitch

BEIJING (Reuters) - China raised its count of SARS cases in the capital Beijing almost 10-fold on Sunday and canceled a week-long national holiday for the first time after coming under fire for its response to the outbreak of the virus.

 

Vice Health Minister Gao Qiang admitted there were 339 people infected with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Beijing and 402 suspected cases as of April 18. Eighteen people had died, he said.

 

Up until Sunday, officials had reported only 37 infections and four dead in the city of 14 million, despite estimates from Chinese doctors and World Health Organization experts of a far higher toll.

 

The Beijing figures accounted for virtually all newly reported cases in China, making the city the third-hardest hit place in the world from SARS, after China's Guangdong province and Hong Kong.

 

The nationwide number of cases now stands at 1,807, with 79 deaths. Hong Kong has recorded 81 deaths.

 

The sudden disclosure came after China's top leadership went on a war footing against SARS on Thursday, ordering full disclosure and threatening harsh punishment for officials caught covering up cases or delaying information.

 

Gao blamed the surge in cases on a health care system ill prepared to handle a sudden outbreak like SARS, which emerged in Guangdong in November and was spread around the world by air travelers in February.

 

DAILY REPORTS PLEDGED

 

"Diagnosing has been relatively difficult. The Health Ministry's preparations to handle sudden public health incidents is insufficient, and the efforts to counter epidemics are relatively weak," Gao said in the statement.

 

"After atypical pneumonia broke out, there was no unified system to collect, accumulate and report on a timely basis the nationwide epidemic," Gao said.

 

Gao also said China would move to daily reports on SARS cases, rather than announcements every five days.

 

Doctors in Beijing have said for weeks the toll in Beijing was far higher than that being reported.

 

A senior military doctor had said the government had failed to report at least 140 cases in Beijing military hospitals and was hiding the extent of SARS for the sake of stability during the annual parliament session in March.

 

Gao said the new figures included 235 confirmed and suspected cases at Beijing military hospitals.

 

China also was canceling the Labor Day "Golden Week" holidays to avoid the spread of SARS, Gao said. It was the first time the recently introduced holiday, due to start on May 1, had been canceled.

 

Tens of millions of travelers had been expected to be on the move, filling trains, planes, buses and hotels throughout the country.

 

"The purpose of such an act is to avoid the flow of massive numbers of people which potentially could lead to the spread of this epidemic," Gao told a news conference.

 

"I'm sure this measure will mean major losses for tourism revenues. However, people's lives and people's health have to be put above everything else," Gao said.

 

China had been extending regularly the May 1 holiday to a full week in a bid to spur consumption. Gao said China would still allow the normal one-day holiday, but the extended week had been canceled to discourage widespread travel.

[Mick]

Even though it means you will have to teach more classes Owen, I suspect that in light of the reality of SARS, cancelling the holiday was a wise move. It is encouraging to see that the government is taking a more open and proactive stance in dealiing with this thing. Without the long holiday, fewer people will be traveling and thus the possibility of spreading the disease will be lessened.

[ChinaRose]

Oh, yes. While watching this unfold on CCTV here, I sat in bed and prayed for all those infected by this deadly virus. The press conference was broadcast in China at 7:00 on Sunday night.

 

Rose

[tonado]

This disease just won't go away.

 

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Singapore braces for largest SARS quarantine

By Jacqueline Wong, Reuters, 4/20/03

 

 

SINGAPORE, April 20 -- Singapore expects to quarantine up to 2,400 people to help contain the spread of SARS, after ordering a food market to shut because three people who worked there had contracted the deadly virus.

 

A vegetable seller who has died is thought to have spread the disease to two other workers at Singapore's largest wholesale market for leafy vegetables, and also infected his wife and a taxi driver who regularly drove him to the market.

 

Fourteen people have died in Singapore from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and another two are suspected to have died from it. More than 200 people have died worldwide.

 

The number of confirmed cases in Singapore has risen to 178, the fourth highest in the world, and Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said on Saturday the city state could be facing its worst crisis.

 

The outbreak at the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Market was a blow to hopes that the disease would be confined mainly to patients and staff in hospitals -- where most of Singapore's infections have occurred -- and people who have had close contact with them.

 

The health ministry was trying to trace on Sunday those who might have been in contact with the workers at the market, which will be shut for three days.

 

"We see this as an extra precautionary measure," Minister of Health Lim Hng Kiang told a news conference. "We don't see that out of the two thousand over people that we impose home quarantine (on), that a high percentage of them will come down with this problem."

 

The ministry has estimated that there are 800 tenants in the market and each of them has an average of two workers. It will be tracing contacts in the next few days and will require a 10-day quarantine for those affected.

 

Radio and newspapers on the island state of four million asked people who had been to the market between April 5 and 18, a span of two weeks in which infections could have spread, to be alert for SARS symptoms such as a fever and cough.

 

One of the infected workers, who died on April 12, was the brother of a hospitalised SARS patient. The worker and his wife, who has been diagnosed as a probable SARS case, were regular passengers of the ill taxi driver.

 

The taxi driver was the second to contract SARS, a development that is likely to scare more people off taking cabs. Business was already falling after a driver with a history of ferrying passengers to hospitals came down with SARS last week.

 

Goh and other officials warned Singaporeans at the weekend not to allow fears of the disease to take the fragile economy into a tailspin.

 

The prime minister said the battle to isolate and contain the outbreak was showing some success in limiting infection rates, but more efforts were need to tackle a climate of fear that was causing widespread damage to the transport and tourism sector.

 

Some 104 people in Singapore have recovered from SARS and the authorities are closely watching another 87 people, including seven children, who may have caught the disease.

[tonado]

Monday April 21, 12:57 PM

Beijing university says 118 under observation for SARS, 54 with fever

 

BEIJING (AFP) - A Beijing university said it had suspended classes after placing 118 people under observation for SARS, including 54 who have fevers.

 

"Up to this morning, we have counted 54 cases of fever in the compound. Thirty-seven are in the university hospital, 17 were sent to an outside hospital," China Northern Jiaotong University said on its website in an open letter to students and parents.

 

"118 people are under observation," it added.

 

A university official told AFP that all the cases so far were suspected and not full blown Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

 

"No one has been confirmed with SARS," the official said at the university in northwest Beijing.

 

Authorities Sunday admitted to 346 SARS cases in Beijing and 402 suspected cases, although it was not clear if these figures included the university.

 

Elsewhere, the Central University of Finance and Economics in north Beijing also suspended classes after a retired professor died of SARS.

 

"A retired professor died of SARS on April 9. Three days later his wife was hospitalised for suspected SARS," the university said.

 

"Eight employees of the university are under observation but up to now none of the students have shown signs of SARS."

 

It said it was shutting it doors "in order to protect the students' lives".

 

The University of International Business and Economics in the capital's northwest also suspended classes from Monday as a precuation.

[SBS]

zhejiang province has at 300 people for SARS by inside information but only reported 4

 

our city Hangzhou is filled of fear now

[Mick]

zhejiang province has at 300 people for SARS by inside information but only reported 4 

 

our city Hangzhou is filled of fear now

Take care of yourself SBS. Hangzhou is a beautiful city and I have several friends there. Hope all works out ok.

[owenkrout]

Another serious mistake. They got so many complaints on lost business that the central government has crawfished on shortening the holiday. They now claim that they never said it was limited to the one statuatory day.

 

Liaoning media are still not reporting that there is a problem.

 

 

 

China's long break still on

Millions may be on the move; WHO fears outbreak in poor provinces

 

By Jason Leow

 

BEIJING - On Sunday, it appeared that China was cancelling its week-long Labour Day holiday in the wake of the Sars crisis, to stop the annual massive movement of people across the country.

 

Yesterday, it became clear that the holiday would still last five days - long enough for millions to hit the road next week.

 

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Xinhua news agency said that May 1 to 3 remained official holidays. And as May 3 falls on a Saturday, a non-working day, the following Monday would also be a holiday.

 

With news that the Sars virus has spread to another five provinces, having millions of holiday-makers criss-crossing the country next week could worsen the situation.

 

Despite Sunday's dramatic sackings of the Health Minister and Mayor of Beijing, along with disclosures of hidden Sars cases in the capital, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned yesterday that China could still face a 'very big outbreak' if poor provinces with limited resources could not hold up against the virus.

 

Last year's Golden Week holiday saw at least 70 million Chinese on the move.

 

While not as many are expected to travel this year, the numbers may still be considerable given the five-day break.

 

'Five days are still long enough for those determined to travel,' said Miss Rita Goh, a Singaporean manager with a Chinese hotel chain.

 

Executive Vice-Minister of Health Gao Qiang said on Sunday that Golden Week would be cancelled to discourage large-scale travelling nationwide, especially by migrant workers going home to rural areas.

 

The WHO said yesterday it was surprised to learn that the Labour Day break would not be limited to May 1 after all.

 

Mr Peter Cordingley, spokesman for the western pacific region, told The Straits Times: 'We are sure the Chinese government understands the consequences of vast numbers of people moving around the country when the full impact of Sars is not yet understood.'

 

The State Council, China's Cabinet, did not provide an answer to The Straits Times' query on what measures were in place to prevent the spread of Sars, if there was mass travelling.

 

Yesterday, the WHO said another 109 cases and two deaths were reported in Beijing. China said it had 2,001 cases and 92 deaths across the country.

 

The virus has also spread to provinces previously free of Sars. North-western Gansu province reported its first two cases on Sunday. Zhejiang and Jilin each had three reported cases, while Liaoning and Shaanxi province had one case each.

 

WHO's Beijing representative Henk Bekedam told Reuters yesterday that China might face a massive outbreak in the provinces unless they had the resources to deal with Sars.

 

'We hope the provinces will be ready,' he said. 'Otherwise, you might have in all the provinces at least 100 cases, and then you can make up the arithmetic.'

 

Other observers sounded more dire warnings.

 

Mr Andrew Thompson, an expert on Chinese health issues at Washington's Centre for Strategic and International Studies, told AFP: 'It's too late, they can't put the genie back in the bottle.

 

'It's got to be everywhere by now, and if it isn't, it will soon be there.'

[Mick]

 

This flip-flopping is economically motivated and unhumanitarian. I pray that far less than seventy million will be on the move this year. Perhaps peoples fears will keep the numbers down. Let's hope so.

[jameschun321]

The China governmant just does not have a clue. SARS will continue to spread if they keep flip-flopping. I do not how they are going to control the disease now that it as spread to other poor provinces. It is hard enough for Bejing or GZ who has resources. Almost impossible for the poor ones. As an infectious disease, SARS is not that bad (if you consider the numbers) but in that part of the world and the covering up by the government, I am getting worried for my fiancee. Let's hope the disease blows over by itself because the Chinese governemnt certainly not helping.

 

Just my 2 cents.

 

JC

[Mick]

The China governmant just does not have a clue.  SARS will continue to spread if they keep flip-flopping.  I do not how they are going to control the disease now that it as spread to other poor provinces.  It is hard enough for Bejing or GZ who has resources.  Almost impossible for the poor ones.  As an infectious disease, SARS is not that bad (if you consider the numbers) but in that part of the world and the covering up by the government, I am getting worried for my fiancee.  Let's hope the disease blows over by itself because the Chinese governemnt certainly not helping. 

 

Just my 2 cents.

 

JC

 

Well-said JC. This thing could spread like wildfire in the poorer provinces where people often do not seek medical help, even if they are sick.

[owenkrout]

I agree with you, James. This disease is bad enough to really set you back, but if it is treated properly, almost everyone will recover. The losses are more economic when it is treated properly. The problem is that for the majority of Chinese, who live on much lower incomes than those in the major cities, they simply cannot afford the treatment and medical care is cash up front. The hospitals are not supposed to turn anyone away now, but they probably don't even have the funds to pay for the medication.

 

We are watching this very closely and are on the verge of closing our pre-school now. (Our daughters means of supporting herself) So far no cases there, but as soon as there are, we are closing it.

[tonado]

I spoke with my fiancee this morning. She finally heard about SARS spreading in China from the Chinese media. Prior to today, she didn't take it very seriously because she heard nothing about it in Nanning. Just now I bought some 3M N95 respirator masks in the internet. I went to several pharmacies earlier today and they all sold out of surgical masks. I plan to send them to her just in case they will need them.

[tonado]

It does not look good for China.

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Tuesday April 22, 10:20 AM

Worry mounts as SARS spreads in China

By John Ruwitch

 

BEIJING (Reuters) - The SARS virus has killed another 13 people and infected 194 in China and the World Health Organisation has said the country may face big outbreaks in its provinces.

 

The latest figures brought the SARS death toll in China to 92 and the total number of cases to 2,001, the official Xinhua news agency said late on Monday, quoting the Health Ministry's first daily report of SARS cases since it promised them on Sunday.

 

The Health Ministry report included first cases in five provinces. Jilin and Zhejiang both registered three cases, Liaoning and Gansu each had two, and Shaanxi logged one, Xinhua said.

 

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which first appeared last November in China's southern province of Guangdong and then spread around the world through air travellers, has already killed around 220 people and infected about 4,000 in 25 countries.

 

In Canada, the only country outside Asia where people have died of SARS, authorities said a "belligerent" health worker who ignored a request to quarantine himself could have put hundreds of people at risk when he attended a weekend funeral.

 

But health experts are particularly worried about China, where officials admit to the poor standards of its health care system in the countryside where 70 percent of its 1.3 billion people live.

 

Premier Wen Jiabao, in a speech made last week and published on Monday, said the health system was so inadequate an epidemic could spread "before we know it" and "the consequences could be too dreadful to contemplate".

 

In Beijing, fear mixed with anger after the government raised its estimate for the number of SARS cases. China's health minister and Beijing's mayor were sacked on Sunday for negligence.

 

"If you do not have the resources to deal with SARS, I think we're going for a very big outbreak in China," Henk Bekedam, the WHO representative in China, told Reuters.

 

"I think it will be quite a challenge to contain SARS within China, especially those provinces which have very limited resources."

 

SARS is spread by coughing and sneezing, but the WHO is not ruling out the possibility that it may also be transmitted when people touch objects such as elevator buttons, or that it could be passed on in fecal matter.

 

Symptoms include a high fever, a dry cough, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing.

 

SARS started in China's Guangdong province, but cases have now appeared in various parts of the country, including the northern region of Inner Mongolia, the eastern province of Zhejiang and Guangdong and Guangxi in the south.

 

MORE VICTIMS

 

The Philippines reported its first victim, a nurse who had come home from Canada, where 14 people, most of them elderly, have already died from SARS.

 

Canadian health authorities said on Monday a health worker who is probably infected with SARS had refused to obey a voluntary quarantine request and had become "obnoxious" and "threatening".

 

They warned on Sunday that travellers on a suburban commuter train might have been exposed to SARS, sparking fears the virus could have spread beyond the medical community that has borne the brunt of the illness so far in Canada.

 

The illness leapt from Guangdong to Hong Kong, which is the hardest-hit place outside mainland China and which reported another six deaths from SARS on Monday. That brings Hong Kong's death toll to 94, the highest in the world.

 

Singapore reported six new cases, including three children, taking its total to 184 cases and 14 deaths. Authorities will quarantine up to 2,400 workers at a huge food market because three people who worked there contracted the virus.

 

A state minister said three more people in India have been diagnosed as suffering from SARS, bringing the number of cases reported there to four.

 

SARS is fatal in about five percent of cases and has no known cure. It is taking a huge economic toll as people shun airlines, and stay at home instead of shopping and dining.

 

Several companies have banned or restricted travel to China and other parts of Asia. T

 

Singapore Airlines said its SilkAir regional carrier would cut more flights in May, taking its total reduction in services to 35 a week. China's flag carrier Air China said SARS had cut its passenger traffic by 20 percent.

 

Financial analysts have cut growth forecasts for East Asia outside of Japan. They say SARS will pose more of a threat to Asian growth than the Iraq war.

 

China cancelled the week-long May Day holiday to discourage people from travelling and spreading the disease.

 

Tens of millions of travellers had been expected to fill trains, planes, buses and hotels across China during the holiday, and the cancellation deals a potential body blow to the turbo-charged economy.