SARS the "threat"
Wirraway
I think the so called Aids and Global trends expert needs to get his facts right before he makes such a sweeping and alarming statement as that. Here in Hong Kong the number of people in hospital infected by SARS has been falling for the last week. The only alarming increase in the number of people in hospital is in China. This large increase is more a case of them coming clean as to the real numbers than in “New Cases”. By the way isn’t it funny that you don’t hear of the number of people that have been cured of this and sent home against those that are being infected each day. I think you would be very surprised.
PS: This is probably the same gentleman that told us in 1980 that 20% of the world’s population world be infected with AIDS within 10 years.
I think the so called Aids and Global trends expert needs to get his facts right before he makes such a sweeping and alarming statement as that. Here in Hong Kong the number of people in hospital infected by SARS has been falling for the last week. The only alarming increase in the number of people in hospital is in China. This large increase is more a case of them coming clean as to the real numbers than in “New Cases”. By the way isn’t it funny that you don’t hear of the number of people that have been cured of this and sent home against those that are being infected each day. I think you would be very surprised.
PS: This is probably the same gentleman that told us in 1980 that 20% of the world’s population world be infected with AIDS within 10 years.
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Some expert. He happened to leave out the not so unimportant fact that Aids eventually kills 100% of its patients whereas SARS is running at around 5-8%. This is a study in hysteria.
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Could this be the light at the end of the tunnel ?.......
AP
Vietnam Readies For WHO To Declare Country Safe From SARS
HANOI (AP)--Just a few days more. If Vietnam can make it to Monday without any new SARS cases, the World Health Organization is prepared to announce that the communist country is the world's first to rid itself of the deadly bug.
No new cases have been reported here since April 8. WHO has set a 20-day window - double the disease's incubation period - as the standard for lifting travel advisories and declaring that the outbreak is no longer spreading.
"It's looking good, but I'm always worried something new will happen," Pascale Brudon, WHO's country representative, said.
Even if things do go right, there will be no celebrations if the SARS thermometer does indeed come back to normal Monday.
Vietnam instead plans to use the news as a springboard for tougher measures to ensure it doesn't get caught in a second wave.
"Vietnam is close to China and Hong Kong where major outbreaks occurred. There remains potentially huge dangers of the SARS virus spreading (here) from the northern borders," said Hoang Thuy Long, director of Vietnam's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.
"We must take more active and stronger measures than during the time when Vietnam was in the middle of the outbreak."
During the past week, the Health Ministry has proposed closing off Vietnam's 1,350-kilometer northern border with China.
It will also request voluntary health certificates from people arriving from SARS-infected areas and has advised Vietnamese citizens to avoid traveling to China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada and Singapore.
Vietnam is also no longer accepting Chinese visitors at its popular northern tourist site, Ha Long Bay.
WHO communicable disease expert Carlo Urbani was the first to identify severe acute respiratory syndrome late February, when the virus spread like wildfire through Hanoi's only international hospital.
Dozens of medical workers fell ill and five succumbed to the disease, but quick action kept the virus tethered. Urbani also become infected and later died in neighboring Bangkok.
"I think we can learn quite a lot of things from Vietnam," Brudon said, "We are the only ones who can begin to think about (announcing the disease is contained). All the others are still in a sense of urgency. I think we can draw good lessons from here."
The disease was brought into Vietnam by a Chinese-American businessman who arrived from Hong Kong.
WHO has since identified him as the country's only "index case" or super carrier as he remains the single source of the outbreak that led to 63 infections in Hanoi.
The Hanoi French Hospital closed its doors March 11, a move that is credited with slowing the rate of infection and keeping SARS from spreading beyond its doors. China and Hong Kong, which have reported more than 210 deaths, never had that opportunity.
The disease has killed more than 260 worldwide and sickened at least 4,300 in more than 20 countries.
Vietnam was one of the first places to report a major outbreak and its numbers were once on par with Hong Kong and Singapore, which has recorded at least 17 deaths.
Even though officials now hope they have a grip on the disease, they also realize just how fast that could all change.
"We have to heighten vigilance and be prepared to cope with it," Long said, "I think the announcement will dispel concerns of foreign visitors, and I hope that they would come back to Vietnam."
=========================================
AP
Vietnam Readies For WHO To Declare Country Safe From SARS
HANOI (AP)--Just a few days more. If Vietnam can make it to Monday without any new SARS cases, the World Health Organization is prepared to announce that the communist country is the world's first to rid itself of the deadly bug.
No new cases have been reported here since April 8. WHO has set a 20-day window - double the disease's incubation period - as the standard for lifting travel advisories and declaring that the outbreak is no longer spreading.
"It's looking good, but I'm always worried something new will happen," Pascale Brudon, WHO's country representative, said.
Even if things do go right, there will be no celebrations if the SARS thermometer does indeed come back to normal Monday.
Vietnam instead plans to use the news as a springboard for tougher measures to ensure it doesn't get caught in a second wave.
"Vietnam is close to China and Hong Kong where major outbreaks occurred. There remains potentially huge dangers of the SARS virus spreading (here) from the northern borders," said Hoang Thuy Long, director of Vietnam's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.
"We must take more active and stronger measures than during the time when Vietnam was in the middle of the outbreak."
During the past week, the Health Ministry has proposed closing off Vietnam's 1,350-kilometer northern border with China.
It will also request voluntary health certificates from people arriving from SARS-infected areas and has advised Vietnamese citizens to avoid traveling to China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada and Singapore.
Vietnam is also no longer accepting Chinese visitors at its popular northern tourist site, Ha Long Bay.
WHO communicable disease expert Carlo Urbani was the first to identify severe acute respiratory syndrome late February, when the virus spread like wildfire through Hanoi's only international hospital.
Dozens of medical workers fell ill and five succumbed to the disease, but quick action kept the virus tethered. Urbani also become infected and later died in neighboring Bangkok.
"I think we can learn quite a lot of things from Vietnam," Brudon said, "We are the only ones who can begin to think about (announcing the disease is contained). All the others are still in a sense of urgency. I think we can draw good lessons from here."
The disease was brought into Vietnam by a Chinese-American businessman who arrived from Hong Kong.
WHO has since identified him as the country's only "index case" or super carrier as he remains the single source of the outbreak that led to 63 infections in Hanoi.
The Hanoi French Hospital closed its doors March 11, a move that is credited with slowing the rate of infection and keeping SARS from spreading beyond its doors. China and Hong Kong, which have reported more than 210 deaths, never had that opportunity.
The disease has killed more than 260 worldwide and sickened at least 4,300 in more than 20 countries.
Vietnam was one of the first places to report a major outbreak and its numbers were once on par with Hong Kong and Singapore, which has recorded at least 17 deaths.
Even though officials now hope they have a grip on the disease, they also realize just how fast that could all change.
"We have to heighten vigilance and be prepared to cope with it," Long said, "I think the announcement will dispel concerns of foreign visitors, and I hope that they would come back to Vietnam."
=========================================
This article in the South China Morning Post sums up my attitude to the whole SARS thing in a nutshell.
Living with Sars
By Tom Mitchell
South China Morning Post
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
Like many mothers whose children work as journalists in China, mine has an exaggerated fear of the Chinese government and all its agents.
My more worldly dad, on the other hand, understands that it is often the littler - and far less dramatic - things that one should worry more about. "I am much more worried about the Chinese mosquitoes than I am about their politicians and police," he once, wrote me before I ventured off for a backpacking trip through south and southwest China.
"You are too smart to run afoul of the law, but dumb enough not to take that medication. Malaria and hepatitis are no fun - so be careful and swallow the pills."
The tiny coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), therefore, has both of my parents plenty worried - so much so that I was somewhat surprised by the urgency of their tone over the phone during the past few weeks.
My mother - being a mother - is particularly upset, and it does not help that many of her friends and acquaintances frequently ask her about the health of her far - flung son and are generous in their suggestions of many a homespun remedy. Had I, for example, considered walking around with a dab Bacitracin ointment under each of my nostrils? Well no, I had not.
It did not take me long to figure out that my own profession bears much blame for the overblown fears of my parents and many others. Consider this recent gem from the pages of the Economist, which is one of my father's favourite windows onto, the outside world: "Streets in [Hong Kong's] business district normally bustling, are eerily quiet. Rush hour is gone, as people try to take public transport at unusual hours. Everybody who has a face mask wears it."
Everybody? Really? The South China Morning Post was so concerned about the health of its employees that it sold us all masks - a set of two or three for HK$12, if I remember right. I'm not sure because I never wore them and now I cannot even remember where I put them. Most of my friends and colleagues have not worn theirs either.
One friend - a long-time Hong Kong resident – was travelling in China when the outbreak here first hit the international headlines.
"My brain says we're seeing something of an over-reaction and when a 14-year-old's fake Web site can empty shelves in Wellcome I know we're not dealing with a rational fear,” he e-mailed me as he was making his way overland back to Hong. “But all the same – should I be wearing that mask?”
I told him I did not think it was as bad as all that, and I thought his reaction after arriving back in Hong Kong summed it all up rather well: "The situation looks a lot more manageable from inside Hong Kong than it does from outside.”
Another friend in Tokyo, who works for a major multinational company, e-mailed me about a recent episode at the office. “It is nice to confirm that you are alive,” my friend wrote. “We had a visitor from Hong Kong last week. Some people in my office got pretty nervous getting close to this person. Though he didn't realise that he was not welcome, I still felt sorry for him."
I have even gotten a taste of this myself. Tonight I am supposed to fly to England for a wedding. Or at least I think I am. My invitation is now conditional upon a poll of the guests, who will be asked if they are comfortable if someone from Hong Kong is milling about in their midst.
'It is an irrational fear, but also an understandable one. And, perhaps it is easy to be too blasé about such things.
So at least my parents are not the only ones worried beyond distraction about Sars. Besides nervous wedding guests and Tokyo office workers, they also have as company some of the world’s leading health professionals. Consider, as an example, this little anecdote I heard about during a brief visit to Guangzhou last week.
A friend had attended a recent press conference given by officials from the World Health Organisation and Guangdong Health Bureau in Guangzhou. After the officials had taken their last questions and the two teams said goodbye to each other, my friend noticed one WHO delegate heading to the bathroom.
Perhaps thinking he could get in a question or two at the urinals, my friend followed the WHO official. But as it turned out, the WHO expert did not have to use the bathroom. Instead, my friend found him standing at the sink. Having just shaken hands with his Guangdong counterparts, the WHO official was scrubbing his own, furiously, with liquid soap and warm water.
Tom Mitchell is an Associate Editor in the Post's Business department
Living with Sars
By Tom Mitchell
South China Morning Post
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
Like many mothers whose children work as journalists in China, mine has an exaggerated fear of the Chinese government and all its agents.
My more worldly dad, on the other hand, understands that it is often the littler - and far less dramatic - things that one should worry more about. "I am much more worried about the Chinese mosquitoes than I am about their politicians and police," he once, wrote me before I ventured off for a backpacking trip through south and southwest China.
"You are too smart to run afoul of the law, but dumb enough not to take that medication. Malaria and hepatitis are no fun - so be careful and swallow the pills."
The tiny coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), therefore, has both of my parents plenty worried - so much so that I was somewhat surprised by the urgency of their tone over the phone during the past few weeks.
My mother - being a mother - is particularly upset, and it does not help that many of her friends and acquaintances frequently ask her about the health of her far - flung son and are generous in their suggestions of many a homespun remedy. Had I, for example, considered walking around with a dab Bacitracin ointment under each of my nostrils? Well no, I had not.
It did not take me long to figure out that my own profession bears much blame for the overblown fears of my parents and many others. Consider this recent gem from the pages of the Economist, which is one of my father's favourite windows onto, the outside world: "Streets in [Hong Kong's] business district normally bustling, are eerily quiet. Rush hour is gone, as people try to take public transport at unusual hours. Everybody who has a face mask wears it."
Everybody? Really? The South China Morning Post was so concerned about the health of its employees that it sold us all masks - a set of two or three for HK$12, if I remember right. I'm not sure because I never wore them and now I cannot even remember where I put them. Most of my friends and colleagues have not worn theirs either.
One friend - a long-time Hong Kong resident – was travelling in China when the outbreak here first hit the international headlines.
"My brain says we're seeing something of an over-reaction and when a 14-year-old's fake Web site can empty shelves in Wellcome I know we're not dealing with a rational fear,” he e-mailed me as he was making his way overland back to Hong. “But all the same – should I be wearing that mask?”
I told him I did not think it was as bad as all that, and I thought his reaction after arriving back in Hong Kong summed it all up rather well: "The situation looks a lot more manageable from inside Hong Kong than it does from outside.”
Another friend in Tokyo, who works for a major multinational company, e-mailed me about a recent episode at the office. “It is nice to confirm that you are alive,” my friend wrote. “We had a visitor from Hong Kong last week. Some people in my office got pretty nervous getting close to this person. Though he didn't realise that he was not welcome, I still felt sorry for him."
I have even gotten a taste of this myself. Tonight I am supposed to fly to England for a wedding. Or at least I think I am. My invitation is now conditional upon a poll of the guests, who will be asked if they are comfortable if someone from Hong Kong is milling about in their midst.
'It is an irrational fear, but also an understandable one. And, perhaps it is easy to be too blasé about such things.
So at least my parents are not the only ones worried beyond distraction about Sars. Besides nervous wedding guests and Tokyo office workers, they also have as company some of the world’s leading health professionals. Consider, as an example, this little anecdote I heard about during a brief visit to Guangzhou last week.
A friend had attended a recent press conference given by officials from the World Health Organisation and Guangdong Health Bureau in Guangzhou. After the officials had taken their last questions and the two teams said goodbye to each other, my friend noticed one WHO delegate heading to the bathroom.
Perhaps thinking he could get in a question or two at the urinals, my friend followed the WHO official. But as it turned out, the WHO expert did not have to use the bathroom. Instead, my friend found him standing at the sink. Having just shaken hands with his Guangdong counterparts, the WHO official was scrubbing his own, furiously, with liquid soap and warm water.
Tom Mitchell is an Associate Editor in the Post's Business department
Last edited by 404 Titan; 27th Apr 2003 at 19:00.
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I can only agree with the sentiments of the SCMP reporter. Whilst I admit that it was probably better to err on the side of caution during the early days of the SARS outbreak when little was known about the disease, the resulting hysteria has caused far more damage than the disease itself. That hysteria has been fed largely by the global media seeking to senationalise the situation.
Yes, people have died from SARS, a great tragedy for all concerned. However, the majority of those who have died from this disease have been elderly, had some underlying chronic disease, or had simply delayed seeking treatment until it was too late. In addition, according to the WHO, SARS is far less infectious than many other respiratory illnesses we have learned to live with; a fact born out by the relatively low number of cases compared to the size of the population. Now that more is known about SARS, can we all please put things in perspective and get on with repairing the considerable damage that has been caused?
Yes, people have died from SARS, a great tragedy for all concerned. However, the majority of those who have died from this disease have been elderly, had some underlying chronic disease, or had simply delayed seeking treatment until it was too late. In addition, according to the WHO, SARS is far less infectious than many other respiratory illnesses we have learned to live with; a fact born out by the relatively low number of cases compared to the size of the population. Now that more is known about SARS, can we all please put things in perspective and get on with repairing the considerable damage that has been caused?
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Has anyone heard one news or media article about the people who have been infected, then pulled through and are now healthy... surely the people who were intially infected and didn't die are now healthy and non infectious..
Whats that.. I hear a resounding silence....
Whats that.. I hear a resounding silence....
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Cypher
Here is a link to the info you requested.
It also debunks a lot of myths about this disease.
This is the 3rd mass hysteria of thenew millenium - Y2K, 9/11 and now SARS
http://home.so-net.com.hk/~pns/
Here is a link to the info you requested.
It also debunks a lot of myths about this disease.
This is the 3rd mass hysteria of thenew millenium - Y2K, 9/11 and now SARS
http://home.so-net.com.hk/~pns/
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Thanks for that D....
I'm just in the process of eating my words..
TV3 news in New Zealand have just done a article about how the SARS infection is decreasing...
A news organisation needs to find some survivors of SARS in Hong Kong and China and do an article to show that if you get SARS.. it's not the end of the world... well for 90% of ya any way..
I'm just in the process of eating my words..
TV3 news in New Zealand have just done a article about how the SARS infection is decreasing...A news organisation needs to find some survivors of SARS in Hong Kong and China and do an article to show that if you get SARS.. it's not the end of the world... well for 90% of ya any way..
The Reverend
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I heard today that alcohol is a good antidote to the SARS virus? Don't know if that's true or not, but I'm pulling the cork on the second red just to be sure!
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ABC
Hong Kong investigates SARS relapses
The SARS virus may be more serious than first thought, with Hong Kong medical authorities investigating the relapse of 12 previously recovered patients.
Health authorities in Hong Kong thought the 12 SARS victims had recovered, and released them from hospital.
But doctors are now investigating whether the virus is more durable than first thought, after the 12 suffered relapses.
Six people are said to be in stable conditions, while the remaining six have again been released.
The SARS outbreak is believed to be coming under increasing control in Hong Kong.
Relapsing patients could again see widespread infections happening in the community.
Hong Kong investigates SARS relapses
The SARS virus may be more serious than first thought, with Hong Kong medical authorities investigating the relapse of 12 previously recovered patients.
Health authorities in Hong Kong thought the 12 SARS victims had recovered, and released them from hospital.
But doctors are now investigating whether the virus is more durable than first thought, after the 12 suffered relapses.
Six people are said to be in stable conditions, while the remaining six have again been released.
The SARS outbreak is believed to be coming under increasing control in Hong Kong.
Relapsing patients could again see widespread infections happening in the community.
Snowballs
I’ve lost count of the times I’ve had a relapse of the flue after thinking I had recovered. The last flue I had was in December and I had relapses three times from it. Each time not as bad as the previous though and all this after having a flue injection in August. I think the ABC is really trying to drag this story out.
PS: As of today the twelve people who had relapses, six have gone home again and the other six remain in hospital on observation and should be going home in the next few days.
I’ve lost count of the times I’ve had a relapse of the flue after thinking I had recovered. The last flue I had was in December and I had relapses three times from it. Each time not as bad as the previous though and all this after having a flue injection in August. I think the ABC is really trying to drag this story out.
PS: As of today the twelve people who had relapses, six have gone home again and the other six remain in hospital on observation and should be going home in the next few days.
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From the ABC website:
A member of a Qantas flight crew has been admitted to St Vincents Hospital in Sydney with suspected Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
Qantas says the female flight crew member became unwell yesterday and was admitted to hospital this morning.
She last worked on Qantas flight 32 from Singapore that arrived in Sydney last Sunday.
Qantas believes she was not infectious at the time of the flight.
The airline says as a precaution it has decided to contact passengers and crew who travelled on that flight.
A spokesman for St Vincents Hospital says microbiology and pathology lab test have been performed on the woman to test for the SARS virus.
He says they will take 24 hours to process.
The woman is believed to be in a stable condition
A member of a Qantas flight crew has been admitted to St Vincents Hospital in Sydney with suspected Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
Qantas says the female flight crew member became unwell yesterday and was admitted to hospital this morning.
She last worked on Qantas flight 32 from Singapore that arrived in Sydney last Sunday.
Qantas believes she was not infectious at the time of the flight.
The airline says as a precaution it has decided to contact passengers and crew who travelled on that flight.
A spokesman for St Vincents Hospital says microbiology and pathology lab test have been performed on the woman to test for the SARS virus.
He says they will take 24 hours to process.
The woman is believed to be in a stable condition
Bluebottle
Yeh Yeh I’ve heard all this before. X number of passengers who have just returned from a SARS “Hotspot” feared of catching the deadly virus. All so far have been negative (had the common flue) and I bet this will be the same. At the current rate of infection in Singapore you have a 1:30000 chance of catching this thing and 1:150000 chance of dieing from it. You have about a 1:20 of catching the flue. The media should stop reporting suspected cases and concentrate on confirmed cases. Oh maybe that won’t work because they won’t have a story to tell because there aren’t any.
Yeh Yeh I’ve heard all this before. X number of passengers who have just returned from a SARS “Hotspot” feared of catching the deadly virus. All so far have been negative (had the common flue) and I bet this will be the same. At the current rate of infection in Singapore you have a 1:30000 chance of catching this thing and 1:150000 chance of dieing from it. You have about a 1:20 of catching the flue. The media should stop reporting suspected cases and concentrate on confirmed cases. Oh maybe that won’t work because they won’t have a story to tell because there aren’t any.
