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More deaths in Asia linked to SARS
April 5, 2003 12:49 p.m. EST
SINGAPORE -- Hong Kong and Malaysia reported new deaths from a mystery illness Saturday, bringing the global death toll to at least 89, while China vowed to share more information on the disease that apparently started in one of its southern provinces.
Hong Kong reported three new deaths and said the number of its people infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, had risen to 800 - accounting for more than a third of the world's more than 2,300 cases. The disease has killed 20 in the territory.
President Bush followed the lead of governments in Asia and Canada by giving American health authorities the power to quarantine anyone infected with the disease. U.S. health authorities are investigating about 100 suspected cases of the disease at home. The U.S. Pacific Command ordered all military personnel not to travel to China and Hong Kong - including Navy ships that regularly dock in Hong Kong - unless it was essential to their missions.
In China, where the government has been criticized for failing to notify the international community when SARS first hit in November, Vice Premier Wu Yi promised to start releasing more information to the public, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Malaysia became the 20th place to join the list of SARS-affected areas after confirming that the illness killed a 64-year-old man who died on March 30 in Kuala Lumpur. He developed SARS symptoms during a recent visit to China, said Malaysia's Health Ministry Director-General Mohamad Taha Arif.
Thailand's health minister, Sudarat Keyuraphan, said he was considering calling military medics to help screen incoming passengers for the disease. The World Health Organization has reported seven SARS cases and two deaths in Thailand.
Singapore said the number of new infections in the city-state was dropping and people should resume their normal routines. The government said it would begin reopening the country's schools in the coming week after shutting them last month due to the disease, which has killed six people and infected 103. However, parents will have to sign declarations saying their children are healthy, and students who have traveled outside Singapore will have their temperatures taken by school staff for 10 days after their return. Singapore's economic losses for the first month of the outbreak could total an estimated $286 million could hit $2.3 billion if the outbreak continues for three months, Standard Chartered Bank economist Joseph Tan was quoted in the Straits Times newspaper.
In China's southern Guangdong province, a WHO team met at Zhongshan University where experts have collected hundreds of specimens of blood, lung fluid and other materials from people who died of SARS and those who recovered, team leader Dr. Robert Breiman said.
WHO wants to compare the samples to determine whether those who died were killed by a combination of viruses or bacteria or just one strain, he said. The meeting came after the head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control, Li Liming, offered the world an extraordinary apology for failing to release information sooner about the disease - first detected in China in November.
In Hong Kong, hygiene workers in protective suits collected rats and roaches for testing at the Amoy Gardens apartment complex, where at least 250 residents were infected. They hope the pests may hold a clue to how the disease was transmitted. Agricultural officials also rounded up pets, from dogs to turtles, from the building after a cat was found to carry a type of animal virus called a coronavirus. Experts believe SARS might be a new form of the virus, the South China Morning Post reported. Fear of infection kept many Hong Kong residents from crossing over to mainland China to sweep their ancestors' graves for the ancient Ching Ming festival.
In Australia, staff of the national airline Qantas were trying to contact 310 passengers who were on flight QF094 from Los Angeles to Melbourne with three children suspected of carrying the disease. The children and their parents flew from their home in Toronto for a holiday in Melbourne.
Cleaners, maintenance staff, pilots and flight attendants who had contact with the aircraft are also being alerted to watch out for symptoms which include high fever, aches, a dry cough and shortness of breath. Source: Nandotimes.com

Posted by RaRa at 4/05/2003 04:53:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Website Hoax Fans Virus Panic

HONG KONG -- A teenager's website hoax about a killer virus that is sweeping Hong Kong sparked panicked food buying and hit financial markets on Tuesday, forcing the government to deny it would isolate the entire territory. "We have no plan to declare Hong Kong an infected area," Director of Health Margaret Chan told reporters. "We have adequate supplies to provide (for) the needs of Hong Kong citizens, and there is no need for any panic run on food."
Severe acute respiratory syndrome, also known as SARS, has now affected almost 1,900 people in at least 12 countries, and 63 are believed to have died. Indonesia, the world's fourth-most-populous nation, reported its first three suspected cases on Tuesday. One official said one of the patients had died.
In Hong Kong, where 685 people are infected and 16 have died from the virus, authorities announced on Tuesday that they were taking more than 200 housing estate residents to isolation camps.
The fake website scare fueled dismay in the territory adjoining China's Guangdong province, where the virus is believed to have originated four months ago. The hoaxer had copied the format of the public Internet portal of the Mingpao, one of Hong Kong's leading newspapers, and posted a message saying the government would declare the city of 7 million "an infected place." The daily said it had identified the teenager responsible. Police were investigating.
As the rumor spread, the Hong Kong dollar took a slight knock, and stocks fell for another day as investors calculated the loss to businesses in the tourism, airlines, property and retail sectors. As some supermarkets suddenly found frightened consumers pulling canned and preserved foods from their shelves, Hong Kong medical teams hunted for the reason why over 200 people in one apartment complex in urban Kowloon had fallen ill with SARS.
Protected by white surgical coats, caps, masks and gloves, investigators combed through the Amoy Gardens apartments, home to almost a third of all cases in Hong Kong. Residents there were under official quarantine. A woman outside, calling herself Mrs. Lee, spoke of her family inside: "My granddaughter is so young, and I don't know how my daughter is doing. I visit them so often. I don't know whether I have the disease, and I don't want to infect others." The government said it was evacuating more than 200 residents of Amoy Gardens to special isolation camps. Finding the cause of the Amoy Gardens outbreak is critical to proving whether the virus has mutated into an airborne plague, which could infect many more people much more quickly. Hong Kong found 75 new SARS cases on Tuesday. So far, doctors believe it has only spread by contact with infected patients, through coughing, spitting and sneezing. Authorities are racing to find carriers of the disease. Many Amoy Gardens residents had already fled their homes before the quarantine, and the government is looking for them.
Hong Kong was also looking for passengers on Thai Airways flight TG 606 from Bangkok to Hong Kong on March 29, the latest infected flight, after an 80-year-old passenger was diagnosed with SARS.
Controlling the disease could be a major challenge in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of some 17,000 islands and 210 million people, many of whom live in poverty in urban slums or villages with few health services. But a spokesman for the World Health Organization said it was encouraging that Indonesia appeared to have detected the disease. "One way to contain the spread is to quickly identify cases. While it is bad news if it has arrived in Indonesia, it would be good news that the Indonesian authorities have identified it quickly," said Iain Simpson, a WHO spokesman.
With Hong Kong so badly affected by the SARS outbreak, businessmen were trying to assess the possible economic damage. "If more and more housing estates are infected, this will bring Hong Kong to a standstill, and our economy will definitely contract," said Alex Tang of Core Pacific-Yamaichi International. "We may have to lower our estimates for corporate earnings as well," he added.
Malaysia has just reported a 3 percent drop in daily passenger arrivals at Kuala Lumpur international airport "seven days before and after" SARS was detected in the region. In and around Hong Kong, airline bookings are down 20 to 30 percent, and flights have been canceled. But the epidemic has meant roaring business for cleaning companies. In Hong Kong offices, teams of workers carrying tanks have been spraying and cleaning with disinfectants.
In Singapore, the Catholic Church drained containers of holy water at church entrances and switched to putting communion wafers in the hands of worshippers, instead of on the tongues. Some medical officials have issued pleas for calm. "I can't say this often enough, the risk to the general public is extremely low," said medical officer Sheela Basrur in Toronto. Canada has reported more than 120 cases of infection. The hope held out by doctors is that the virus's detailed makeup will be pinpointed soon. Some victims have been successfully treated using antibodies in serum from recovered patients, which suggests they developed some immunity. The World Health Organization has now reported confirmed SARS cases in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Canada, the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Britain, France, Ireland and Italy.
Source: Reuters, Wired News (medtech)

Posted by RaRa at 4/02/2003 10:46:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Update: Monday, March 31, 2003
Craig Sterritt, Editor, Medscape Infectious Diseases

Today's Leading News
On Saturday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Julie L. Gerberding, MD, expressed worry that new developments in the epidemiology of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) pointed to what could become "a much larger" epidemic. After reiterating "that the disease is still primarily limited to travelers...and to [those who have had] close contact with SARS patients," she said U.S. and international health officials were "concerned about the possibility of airborne transmission across broader areas and also the possibility that objects that become contaminated in the environment could serve as modes of spread. "Coronaviruses can survive in the environment for up to two or three hours," she added, "and so it's possible that a contaminated object could serve as a vehicle for transfer to someone else." Although not confirmed as the single cause of SARS, a coronavirus is the leading suspect agent at this time. Dr. Gerberding's statements coincided with a Hong Kong report that SARS had been transmitted to scores of people in a single apartment complex after a single resident visited a hospitalized relative with SARS. Hong Kong reported more than 100 new SARS cases over the weekend. On Saturday, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the death of Dr. Carlo Urbani, who first identified the SARS outbreak. Dr Urbani had acquired the disease in the course of his investigations.
Epidemiology: As of March 29, the WHO cumulative tallies of suspected SARS cases and deaths were 1,550 and 54, respectively. On March 29, the CDC reported a total of 62 suspected U.S. cases in 22 states, up from 51 cases on March 27. The number of cases reported by Health Canada has increased from 37 to 98. The new figure includes both suspected and probable cases, whereas the earlier count included probable cases only.
Etiology: A new coronavirus remains the prime suspect in the search for the cause of SARS. Dr. Gerberding stated last week that viruses detected so far did not appear to be a known coronavirus. "We know from sequencing pieces of the virus DNA that it is not identical to the coronaviruses that we have seen in the past. This may very well be a new or emerging coronavirus infection, but it is very premature to assign a cause."
Diagnosis, Treatment, Outcomes: Scientists at the University of Hong Kong announced on March 27 that they had developed a diagnostic test to rapidly identify SARS cases. The test is based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology. So far, test results in confirmed SARS cases have been consistently positive, while healthy controls have consistently tested negative. Another test, an immunofluorescence assay, is also in development.
In a "virtual grand rounds" on clinical features and treatment of SARS organized by WHO last week, clinicians managing SARS patients described disease features at presentation, treatment, progression, prognostic indicators, and discharge criteria. There was general consensus that no therapy in particular demonstrated any particular effectiveness. According to a summary of the proceedings, participating clinicians agreed "that a subset of SARS patients, perhaps 10 percent, decline and need mechanical assistance to breathe. These people often have other illnesses that complicate their care. In this group, mortality is high." According to the summary, however, the majority of patients show improvement in signs and symptoms at day 6 or 7.
Regarding treatment, the summary concluded that: "Numerous antibiotic therapies have been tried to date with little clear effect. Ribavirin with or without use of steroids has been used in an increasing number of patients. But in the absence of clinical indicators, its effectiveness has not been proven. Currently the most appropriate management measures are general supportive therapy, insuring the person is hydrated and treated for subsequent infections."

Summary of Events to Date
On March 15, 2003, WHO issued a global alert of a multicountry outbreak of SARS, an atypical pneumonia of as yet unidentified etiology. According to WHO, the syndrome was first recognized on February 26, 2003, in Hanoi, Vietnam. According to WHO, as of March 29, 2003, SARS cases have been reported in Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Ireland, Romania, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam. A total of 1,550 cases and 54 deaths have been reported to date. SARS appears to be transmitted by close contact only, most probably via airborne droplets; the majority of new cases have been reported in healthcare workers and family members of affected persons. Evidence of community spread of the disease is emerging, however.
On March 24, the CDC announced that a new coronavirus is the prime suspect in the search for the cause of SARS. Confirmation of this is pending.
On March 26, Chinese authorities officially reported a total of 792 SARS cases and 31 deaths that occurred in 7 cities of Guangdong Province between November 16, 2002, and February 28, 2003. As of March 29, WHO is reporting a total of 806 suspected SARS cases and 34 deaths in mainland China. Health officials in Singapore have quarantined 861 people with flu-like symptoms and have closed all schools until April 6. A total of 89 SARS cases and 2 deaths have been reported there. More than 1,000 people were quarantined and schools were ordered closed in Hong Kong on March 27. This followed the identification of 51new SARS cases and a warning by a top health official that SARS was spreading among the general public. Scientists at the University of Hong Kong announced on March 27 that they have developed a diagnostic test to rapidly identify cases of SARS. The researchers also announced that they had confirmed a coronavirus as the cause of SARS, and recommended that SARS, a provisional name for the disease, be retermed "coronavirus pneumonia" or CVP.
On March 29, Hong Kong health officials reported that SARS had been transmitted to 78 people in a single apartment complex after a single resident visited a hospitalized relative with SARS.
Source: Medscape Medical News

Posted by RaRa at 4/01/2003 04:29:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Mystery Pneumonia Kills Elderly Man in Hong Kong
Hong Kong: An elderly man has died in a Hong Kong hospital from Sars, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The death of the man in his 70s brings the global death toll to 11. He had also been suffering from a blood disease. As he died, the number of patients in Hong Kong diagnosed with Sars rose by 19 to 222. A Hong Kong university team has isolated the virus from the lung tissue of a patient who developed Sars after contact with a doctor from southern China’s Guangdong Province. The World Health Organisation, which has issued a rare global warning about the disease, says the laboratory has succeeded in culturing an infectious agent that might be the cause of SARS. It describes the culture as: ‘The first important step towards the development of a diagnostic test.’ A team of WHO infectious disease experts is travelling to China to investigate whether an outbreak of atypical pneumonia in China’s Guangdong Province last month was linked to Sars. In Singapore, a hospital has been closed to all but Sars patients and the US State Department has warned Americans to avoid Viet Nam because of the disease.
Source: The Southeast Asian Times.

Posted by RaRa at 3/30/2003 04:52:00 AM | Permalink | Comments