Killer-Flu a "White Terror:"

Expert, "It is the worst medical disaster I have ever seen."

March 27, 2003

In today's Herald Sun that was the frightening headline. I quote from the report:

The Prince of Wales Hospital, where Dr Chung treats SARS patients, has had 69 medical staff struck down by the illness.

"I feel terrible seeing my colleagues struck down one after another," Dr Chung said. He said one doctor's lung function was "totally destroyed", highlighting the stress such cases cause among professionals.

China admitted yesterday that the number of mainland deaths was almost five times the number previously acknowledged and infections were double the number revealed by officials until now.

Guangdong officials point to news reports that said 24 people had died and 680 had been infected in that city by the end of February. SARS is poorly understood and scientists have yet to nail down its cause. Chairman of the Communicable Disease Network of Australia David Smith said it was not unlike the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.

As with HIV-AIDS, medical and health professionals were struggling to pin down the infectious organism and must work with "very broad" definitions of the symptoms, Associate Professor Smith said.

Posted by Douglas Oliver on March 26, 2003 at 1:55 PM

BREAKING: Mysterious Asian Illness May Be a New Disease -- Rumors of Chinese Bioweapons Abound

Tests are unable to identify bug causing sickness

Breaking new this morning in the <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/03/18/MN253862.DTL>San Francisco Chronicle is that the strange illness is a brand new disease. (March 18, 2003) I quote a brief excerpt from their report:

* * *A mysterious, flu-like illness that has stricken scores of hospital workers in Southeast Asia has stumped a battery of tests for known bacteria and viruses and most likely represents a new human disease of unknown origin, federal health authorities said Monday.

At least 14 cases bearing some resemblance to the illness are being evaluated in the United States, including that of an unidentified patient, recently arrived from travel to Asia, who turned up in a Los Angeles County emergency room with a high fever and difficulty breathing.

Patients with the disease come down with a particularly dangerous case of pneumonia -- fluid filling their lungs -- and many of those sickened in Southeast Asia have had to be placed on ventilators. * * * <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/03/18/MN253862.DTL>Read More

We will create a new link for our exclusive reports on this Asian disease so that readers may track breaking news reports.

Fresh rumors are spreading rapidly about the origins of the disease. Some people are speculating afresh about laboratory born illnesses and bioweapons. I reiterate my report and commentary from March 17, 2003.

Yesterday NewsPundit Reported: Previously Unknown Chinese Virus Terrifies the World: People Wonder About Biological Weapons

Breaking news yesterday in <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/17/international/asia/17CND-HONG.html?ex=1048568400&en=e5dd298256ee7f84&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE>The New York Times: A strange respiratory disease originally named by health care officials "severe acute respiratory syndrome" (SARS) has just been identified as a previously unknown virus. Identified cases of the new disease have "doubled" in the past few days according to medical officials in Hong Kong. It is now known that the disease originated in Guandong Province in Southern China, where over 350 cases were documented last November.

World Health Organization officials say this new disease "cannot be stopped" by standard anti-viral and anti-bacterial drugs. The virus has spread rapidly across the globe by international air travelers. The total number of cases world wide are not known, but more than 400 cases have been reported by health agencies around the world. There were fewer than 100 known cases just a week ago. People are hospitalized in at least six countries: Germany, Canada, United States, Vietnam, China and Thailand.

Bookings for visitors traveling to Hong Kong from Europe and the United States have not been adversely affected by news of the outbreak. But bookings from elsewhere in Southeast Asia have plunged by up to 80 percent in the last several days as countries like Singapore and Thailand have discouraged their citizens from taking unnecessary trips.

Rumors Spreading about Death Rates:

Rumors have been spreading rapidly about this new virus and its morbidity rate. So far total deaths have been reported to be nine as of yesterday. But there facts may have been withheld and some health officials have issued disturbing comments. I quote briefly from two reports:

From the <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/17/international/asia/17CND-HONG.html?ex=1048568400&en=e5dd298256ee7f84&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE>New York Times report cited above:

Prime Minister Helen Clark of New Zealand asserted today that some World Health Organization officials believe the new illness could be as deadly as the influenza pandemic that killed 20 million people worldwide in 1918 and 1919.

From a report in <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/EC18Ad05.html>The Asia Times doctors in Hong Kong are concerned by efforts to downplay threats posed by the disease. (March 17, 2003):

The president of the Public Doctors' Association, Dr Leung Ka-lau, has described the situation in Hong Kong as "red light", without giving further details. He criticized the government for misleading the public into believing that Hong Kong was in the "yellow light" stage. From a report in the <http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/71008.htm>New York Post today it appears officials all over the world are angry about the "news blackout" by China. (March 17, 2003): Scientists are furious that China hid a mysterious illness that raged there for months, preventing them from getting an early jump on the pneumonia-like disease that has affected hundreds - including a doctor who visited New York City last week.

"People are upset about this," one American epidemiologist told The Post on the condition of anonymity.

"Things were concealed, they were hidden from the rest of the world. We didn't know how bad it was."

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome has drawn worldwide attention and been called a global "threat" by health officials in the past week after nearly 200 people fell ill, mainly in Southeast Asia.

Rumors of Possible Biological Weapons:

There are rumors spreading on the Internet about biological warfare. We need to silence those rumors. There is no reason to fear this new virus might be a bioweapon or caused by the accidental release of a man made virus.

Posted by Douglas Oliver on March 18, 2003 at 10:30 AM

New Medical Evidence Just Learned Today About this Brand New Virus (March 18, 2003)

From the <http://www.promedmail.org/pls/askus/f?p=2400:1001:149223503580919741::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,21007>ProMed Web Site it was revealed today:

Numerous tests have been performed on the 3 patients admitted on Saturday 15 March to the Isolation Unit at Frankfurt am Main with suspected severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Tests from respiratory specimens for influenza A and B virus, respiratory syncytial virus, enteroviruses, _Mycoplasma pneumoniae_ and _Chlamydia_ spp. by antigen enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and/or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were all negative; antibody tests for dengue, influenza A and B, measles, hantaviruses, _Mycoplasma pneumoniae_ and _Chlamydia_ spp. were likewise negative or unremarkable so far; further test results are pending.

Particles morphologically resembling paramyxoviruses were seen in respiratory specimens (throat swab and sputum) obtained from the index patient, a doctor from Singapore, by the teams in Marburg and in Frankfurt am Main.

It remains to be seen whether this finding can be confirmed -- tests including low-stringency paramyxovirus PCR and tissue culture are currently under way in Hamburg, in Marburg and in Frankfurt am Main. It needs to be emphasised that at this time these preliminary results only indicate a suspicion. Furthermore, even if the presence of a paramyxovirus was confirmed, it is not clear at this stage whether this might represent the causal agent of SARS or rather a coincidental finding.

More on Paramyxoviruses:

The family of Paramyxoviridae contains viruses that induce a wide range of distinct clinical illnesses in humans:- These include measles virus, which in rare instances is followed by subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE); mumps virus, which has symptoms of parotitis, orchitis and encephalitis, and the parainfluenza viruses which are respiratory pathogens .

. Virions are enveloped and enclose a helical nucleocapsid containing single-stranded RNA. Most virions are roughly spherical (about 200nm in diameter) but they can be much larger and more pleomorphic. The virus envelope is a lipid bilayer, studded with virus encoded glycoproteins which have properties of haemagglutination and fusion (the F protein).

Posted by Douglas Oliver on March 18, 2003 at 4:30 PM

A Horse Virus ... ?

It was reported this morning by <http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6152606%255E2,00.html>News.com.au in Australia that the killer virus may have originated with a horse virus. I quote an excerpt from that report: (March 19, 2003)

* * *A BUG linked to the virus that killed a Brisbane horse trainer in 1994 has emerged as a likely cause of the mysterious pneumonia-like illness that has claimed eleven lives around the world. Specialists in Hong Kong and Germany claimed to have identified paramyxovirus in two patients suffering from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) as the international death toll climbed to eleven * * *

It is too early to tell how widely the bug has traveled and how many are infected.

Posted by Douglas Oliver on March 19, 2003 at 2:30 AM

New Victims Reported in Hong Kong: 32 Stricken Including Children (March 21, 2003)

It was announced today by <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/eastasia/view/35400/1/.html>Channel News Asia that many new victims had been infected by this mystery ilness. I quote briefly from that report:

* * * The Hong Kong government says it has contained the atypical pneumonia virus in the territory, but 32 more people have fallen victim to the deadly virus. The suspension of accident and emergency services at the Prince of Wales Hospital continues for another week. * * *

* * * This brings the total number struck by the virus to 197. "We've contained the spread among primary contacts, trying to contain secondary contacts," said Yeoh Eng-kiong, Hong Kong's secretary for health, welfare and food.

China has repeatedly refused to link local cases of the outbreak to its southern Guangdong province.

But the World Health Organization says preliminary studies confirm such a connection.

It has been confirmed that children are also victims of the illness. * * *

Posted by Douglas Oliver on March 21, 2003 at 2:15 PM

Outbreak Traced to Chinese Medical Professor Visiting Hong Kong (March 21, 2003)

An exclusive report published by <http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/news/0303/21cdc.html>Access Atlanta says the World Health Organization has found the initial source of the killed bug. He was reported to be a medical professor visiting from mainland China.

An excerpt follows:

* * * The Hong Kong government acknowledged Thursday that a visitor from the Chinese mainland sparked the epidemic of mystery pneumonia that has swept the world, belying weeks of disavowals by the Chinese government.

The admission of the link to the mainland Chinese outbreak -- suspected for weeks by international health authorities -- came as the U.S. toll of suspected cases rose to 13 in 10 states and the worldwide count climbed to 306 cases and 10 deaths.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday there was one suspected case each in Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin; two in North Carolina; and three in California. * * *

I will bite my tongue rather than engaging in speculation about "what type of medical professor" he may have been (i.e. medical research specialist). This scientist died from the illness in Hong Kong after reportedly infecting people coming into casual contact with him in a hotel.

Posted by Douglas Oliver on March 21, 2003 at 2:23 PM

Mysterious Illness Kills 2 In Beijing in Disturbing Sign of Worldwide Spread (March 22, 2003)

The <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7532-2003Mar21.html>Washington Posted reported this morning that the newly discovered mystery flu is spreading rapidly across the world. (March 22, 2003) Most disturbing is the reluctance of the Chinese government to report the disease to health officials and a tight media blackout. Quoting from that report:

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. * * *.

An official with the World Health Organization, based in Geneva, said it was informed by Chinese officials that no cases of the disease had occurred outside of Guangdong. * * *

Chinese doctors said there were cases in Beijing at least 10 days ago and Shanghai hospitals had some at least a month ago. * * *

On Thursday the WHO reported a total of 350 cases outside China, including 10 deaths, up from 306 cases the day before. Italy and Ireland joined the list, each reporting one case. Most of the new cases are from Hong Kong, hit hardest with 203 cases and six deaths. * * *

Posted by Douglas Oliver on March 22, 2003 at 7:23 AM

More Deaths from Mystery Illness are Reported. A Link to 350 News Reports is Posted (March 24, 2003)

The <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2880093.stm>BBC reported early today that the number of deaths from the mystery flu has increased to a worldwide total of 22. We are also posting a link to <http://news.google.com/news?num=30&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=cluster:www%2enews24%2ecom%2fNews24%2fWorld%2fNews%2f0%2c6119%2c2%2d10%2d1462%5f1336585%2c00%2ehtml>Google where you may access over 350 news reports about this new mystery killer SARS virus. I quote briefly from the BBC Report.

Doctors are hunting the cause of the illness A Vietnamese nurse has become the latest person to die after contracting a mystery virus, bringing the worldwide death total to 22.

The illness, known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS, had already killed another Vietnamese nurse and a French doctor working at the Vietnam-France Hospital in Hanoi. * * *

Dr John Mackenzie, World Health Organization News of the latest cases comes as a World Health Organization (WHO) expert claims the condition could have existed, unnoticed, for many years. * * * [He] told AFP news agency: "We might well find that the disease, or the agent that causes that disease, has been around for a long time, but we haven't recognised it previously. * * *

Posted by Douglas Oliver on March 24, 2003 at 4:25 AM

More than 750 People Quarantined in Singapore (March 24, 2003)

Breaking news from an <http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/5469753.htm>AP report .... A brief excerpt:

Singapore's government on Monday ordered about 740 people who may have been exposed to victims of a mysterious flu-like illness to stay home for 10 days in a bid to contain the disease.

Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang said he was invoking the Infectious Diseases Act for what could be the first time since Singapore gained independence in 1965. * * *

Posted by Douglas Oliver on March 24, 2003 at 6:50 AM

Official: Mystery Pneumonia in Southern China Killed 31 by End of February (March 26, 2003)

From an <http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAJ5DXVQDD.html>AP report this morning we learned that the Chinese are giving up information very slowly. We still do not know the total number of people who have died or the total who have been infected to date in March. Excerpt:

BEIJING (AP) - A mysterious form of pneumonia has killed 31 people in China's southern province of Guangdong through the end of February, a local government spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Health experts say it isn't clear whether the deaths are linked to severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, a fatal respiratory illness that has spread to three continents.

In Guangdong, 24 people died in the provincial capital of Guangzhou and seven were elsewhere in the province, said the spokeswoman for the Guangzhou city government. She would give only her surname, Ye.

By the end of February, there were 792 cases of infection reported throughout the whole province, Ye said. She said 680 of those cases were in Guangzhou and the remainder were in six other cities in Guangdong.

The spokeswoman wouldn't give details on when the deaths occurred. * * *

Posted by Douglas Oliver on March 25, 2003 at 5:30 AM
http://www.newspundit.net/mysterydisease.html