Steve Quayle News Alerts

May 1, 2003

Visitors walk through an almost deserted Tiananmen Square in Beijing on May Day, May 1. The square, normally jammed with people on the holiday, was quiet as most people stayed at home in an effort to avoid being infected with the deadly SARS virus.

BEIJING, May 1 — Millions of Chinese workers celebrated May Day on Thursday cooped up at home, as China tried to contain the deadly SARS virus, which threatens to overwhelm its rickety healthcare systems. China’s capital city has been particularly hit, experiencing 100 or more cases per day, and fears remain the disease will spread throughout the country.

CHINA CUT THE “Golden Week” holiday to a long weekend this year and issued stern travel advisories to discourage tourists and migrant workers from heading home to the hinterland. Last year, 87.1 million people thronged trains, buses and planes during the week-long holiday, generating $4 billion in tourism revenues, state media reported.

China’s Health Ministry raised the national death toll on Thursday by 11 to 170 and reported 187 more new cases, bringing the total to 3,647, the ministry said.

Beijing has been one of the worst hit areas and is seeing 100 or more new cases every day. The capital has already closed schools, theatres and recreational spots and put 11,000 people under quarantine.

The empty buses and mounting business closures reinforced what most people already know: China has yet to control the contagion of the deadly disease.

FATALITY RATE WORSENING
World health officials said not only was SARS here to stay, but its fatality rate was worsening as patients who had been lingering in hospitals have now begun to die from the disease.

The World Health Organization said the SARS death rate may be rising to 10 percent from 6 percent, especially in Canada and Singapore.
The latest on SARS
The Geneva-based WHO said the mortality rate appeared to be higher in places with developed health services, but he said the reason was a mystery.

One possible explanation for a higher fatality rate among infected medical staff, at least, in richer countries is that in these countries doctors and nurses tend to get more involved in treatment and general care, a WHO official said.

“It may be just that there was much more contact — and that this happened before [the seriousness] of the disease was known,” he said.

The officials from Canada and other countries met in Toronto on Wednesday for an international conference to examine how to stop the spread of the disease. Canada, where deaths rose from 21 to 23, is the only country outside Asia where people have died from SARS.

The global death toll from the respiratory disease believed to have emerged from southern China was at least 394. More than 5,400 cases have been reported in about 29 countries.

RELAPSES IN HONG KONG
In Hong Kong, five more deaths lifted the toll to 162, but there were only 11 new cases reported on Thursday, the lowest figure since officials began releasing daily statistics in March.

The numbers in Hong Kong, which has had 1,600 cases so far, seem to be coming down steadily, experts said.

However, Hong Kong reported on Wednesday that a small number of people who had previously been diagnosed as having recovered from SARS had been stricken again.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization
Printable version

Malik Peiris, a University of Hong Kong microbiologist, said relapses are “not a good thing,” but they weren’t surprising given how little is known about the virus that causes SARS.

A Hospital Authority spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity that fewer than 10 patients have suffered relapses. Officials were “very concerned” about the cases and were studying them.

Doctors say quickly isolating SARS patients is key to preventing the disease from spreading and quick treatment may help patients survive.

VILLAGERS BLOCK ROADS AGAINST SARS
Nervous villagers around China’s capital blocked roads with dirt and stones to keep out people with SARS, as authorities prepared to open a new 1,000-bed hospital north of Beijing for patients with the illness.

At a half-dozen farm villages in Beijing’s northern outskirts, barricades lay across roads into the communities. Signs told outsiders to stay away. Residents were allowed to leave, but volunteer guards sprayed their vehicles with disinfectant when they returned.

At a cluster of farmhouses within sight of the new, hastily built SARS hospital — which is set amid cornfields north of Beijing near the suburban hot spring town of Xiaotangshan — a chest-high pile of dirt spread beyond the edges of the road. A hand-lettered sign in red on a scrap of plywood said, “SARS Prevention, No Entry.”

NEW SARS HOSPITAL
The new hospital is part of China’s massive efforts over the past two weeks to stop the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Beijing, where officials Thursday reported seven more deaths, raising the capital’s death toll to 82. A total 1,570 cases have been reported in Beijing.

Beijing Mayor Wang Qishan said Wednesday that no SARS cases have been reported in villages around Beijing. But he warned of potential disaster if the virus spreads into poorer areas that lack the capital’s health care resources, and said rural households had been issued thermometers and told to check family members every day for fever — a key SARS symptom.

The rising toll of deaths and infections in Beijing sparked panic last week, with thousands of people fleeing the capital and others stocking up on food for fear the city of 13 million people might be sealed off.

The government says the new Beijing hospital was built in eight days by 7,000 laborers who worked around the clock.

The rows of white, one-story buildings ringed by a 15-foot-high red brick wall are the centerpiece of increasingly urgent efforts to defeat the outbreak.

Wang, appointed only last week after his predecessor was accused of mishandling the outbreak, said the first 195 patients were ready to move in.

SINGAPORE CANCELS TECHNOLOGY FAIR
Meanwhile, two annual technology trade fairs, which together drew some 25,000 visitors to tourist-hungry Singapore, have been cancelled due to participants’ fears of SARS, their organizer said on Thursday.

The BroadcastAsia and CommunicAsia fairs, slated for June, had more than 2,000 firms showcasing their products in 2002, Singapore Exhibition Services said in a statement.

Singapore has the world’s fourth-highest number of cases of SARS, which has caused 24 deaths in the city state.

Visitor arrivals to Singapore, which has cut its official economic growth forecast to 0.5-2.5 percent for 2003 from 2 to 5 percent previously, slumped by 61 percent in early April.

The disease has dealt a huge blow to Singapore’s services sector, hurting airline, cruise, hotel, restaurant, travel agent, retail and taxi services. Services contribute to 62 percent of Singapore’s Gross Domestic Product.

Computex, one of the world’s major computer exhibitions planned from June 2-6 in Taiwan, was also canceled, but the show could be rescheduled later this year.

‘LEARNED OUR LESSON’
On Tuesday, in a rare move for a Chinese leader, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao publicly apologized to Asian leaders at an emergency SARS summit in Bangkok, Thailand, and assured his counterparts that “we have learned our lesson. The Chinese government and the people have learned a lot.”

Wen tried to assure the conference participants that China was doing all it could to contain the illness, adding that reporting of cases had improved and the WHO was welcome to send teams to any hospital in China.

At their Bangkok summit, the first high-level international meeting to discuss SARS, Asian leaders adopted a six-point plan to control SARS, including rigorous screenings of international travelers, a SARS hot line and an exchange of research about the disease.

In addition, China proposed an Asian fund to study and devise preventive measures against SARS, and pledged seed money of $1.2 million. Separately, Taiwan announced it would establish its own $1.4 billion SARS emergency fund.

Leaders of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations, with China and Hong Kong, were encouraged by the WHO’s announcement Monday that the virus was peaking in Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Canada.

But health officials remained concerned. “We are not out of the woods,” said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifying before a U.S. Senate health committee Tuesday.

“In this particular epidemic, the word ‘contained’ has to be interpreted on a day-to-day basis,” Gerberding said, noting a single patient could set off a cascade of infections.

RELATED DEVELOPMENTS
In India, 200 people were quarantined Thursday for fear they may have SARS. India has reported 19 cases and no deaths.

Stephen Friedman, President Bush’s chief economic adviser, said in Washington he hoped SARS would have a limited effect on the U.S. economy, although he said it remained a potent threat. There have been 245 suspected SARS cases reported in the United States, but only 41 are probable cases, and there have been no deaths.

The Japanese government advised its 3,000 students studying in Beijing to return home and extended its travel advisory to all of China instead of just the capital.

Timeline for SARS

Nov. 16, 2002 The first case of severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS, occurs in China’s southern province of Guangdong.

Mid-February 2003 China’s government reports 305 cases of atypical pneumonia and five deaths in Guangdong province.

Feb. 10 The World Health Organization, WHO, learns that the cases of atypical pneumonia began in November in China.

Feb. 14 Chinese authorities say the disease is under control.

Feb. 21 A professor, who treated patients in Guangdong province, travels to the Metropole Hotel in Hong Kong. He infects 12 other guests who spread the disease by travel to Vietnam, Canada and the United States. 2 / 8

Feb. 26 Doctors in Hong Kong report the first cases of what they called SARS.

Feb. 28 Cases of SARS appear in Vietnam, similar to those in Hong Kong.

March 12 The WHO issues a global health alert stating that a new, unrecognizable, flu-like disease may spread to health-care workers.

March 14 Canada reports its first case of SARS.

March 15 The WHO issues an emergency travel advisory, saying SARS is spreading worldwide. At the time, the agency did not restrict travel to any parts of the world. Instead, it warned travelers to be aware of the illness’ symptoms and to inform airport personnel if someone on their plane had those symptoms.3 / 8

March 18 Doctors in Germany say they have found signs of a paramyxovirus in blood samples from one SARS patient. Scientists in Hong Kong confirm the findings in samples of two other patients. Paramyxovirus is a family of viruses that includes a pathogen causing measles. Scientists say the paramyxovirus theory makes sense, since pneumonia can be a complication of measles.

March 20 Hong Kong health officials link the global spread of SARS with the guest in a local hotel. Epidemiologists trace the illness back to the Chinese professor who stayed at Hong Kong's Metropole Hotel.

March 21 The Chinese government asks WHO for help investigating the outbreak in Guangdong province. A team of WHO experts travels to the region.

March 23 Scarborough Grace Hospital in Toronto closes temporarily because of SARS. The chief of Hong Kong's Hospital Authority is admitted to hospital with pneumonia-like symptoms. Doctors are not sure if he caught SARS.

March 24 CDC scientists say they have strong evidence that a type of coronavirus, which also causes the common cold and infects animals, may be responsible for SARS. 4 / 8

March 26 Ontario declares a public health emergency and orders thousands of people to quarantine themselves in their homes.

March 27 Passengers on international flights sitting near those with SARS come down with the disease, prompting WHO to tell Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore to screen passengers on flights.

March 31 Hong Kong’s health department issues an isolation order, requiring residents of an apartment block to stay inside until April 9 to stop the spread of SARS.

April 3 The CDC warns against all non-essential travel to Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Hanoi. Hong Kong relocates the citizens of an infected apartment block to isolation camps.

April 4 President Bush issues an executive order allowing the quarantine of healthy people suspected of being infected with SARS but who do not yet have symptoms.5 / 8

April 7 The WHO recommends people consider postponing all non-essential travel to Hong Kong or Guangdong province. The WHO sends a team to Guangdong province to investigate the outbreak’s origins.

April 8 Doctors in China say there are more SARS cases than the government is reporting. Hong Kong reports 40 new cases a day for three days in a row. The CDC reports receiving a record number of phone calls from the U.S. public about SARS.

April 9 The WHO says China may be withholding information about SARS.

April 14 Canadian scientists sequence the DNA of the coronavirus believed to cause SARS

April 16 Scientists in the Netherlands confirm that a new form of coronavirus, other types of which cause the common cold, is the cause of SARS.6 / 8

April 17 Hong Kong officials report that SARS spread through a leaky sewage system in an apartment complex where a quarter of the territory's 1,300 cases were identified.

April 18 China responds to criticism about how it is handling the SARS epidemic by being more open about cases.

April 20 China, under fire for not disclosing the extent of its SARS infections, raised its number of cases to 1,807 from 1,512. Soon after, the health minister and mayor of Beijing were dismissed from their posts. Meanwhile, SARS changed the rituals of Easter in Toronto forcing parishioners not to embrace or share the communion cup. Also, Singapore quarantined 2,400 people who worked at a vegetable market because a worker died there of SARS.

April 22 Hong Kong sends 200,000 secondary school students back to class after a three-week hiatus as efforts to contain SARS seem to lower the daily case numbers. Concern about spread from China remains. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention specialists arrive in Toronto to help with infection control.

April 23 Beijing keeps 1.7 million primary and secondary students from school until May 7. WHO issues a travel advisory against Beijing, China's Shanxi province and Toronto. The alert already existed against Hong Kong and China's Guangdong province. 7 / 8

April 24 China seals off a major hospital with a staff of 2,300 people in Beijing and issues quarantine orders to contain SARS. Meanwhile, anxious residents of the capital city stormed supermarkets fearing food shortages and others left the city.

April 25 Beijing closes a third hospital and quarantines approximately 4,000 people. Asian officials meet to create strict travel checks at airports and seaports. Meanwhile, Canadian officials say WHO may re-evaluate the travel advisory the agency issued against Toronto.

April 26 Asian health ministers call for strict pre-departure checks on passengers at airports and seaports in an attempt to battle SARS.

April 27 China shuts down all theaters, cinemas and other places of entertainment in Beijing in an effort to curb the spread of SARS.

April 28 The WHO says outbreaks of the deadly flu-like SARS have peaked in Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam, but not in China, where the virus first emerged last year. The WHO also says Vietnam is the first country to contain the disease and lifted a travel advisory against the country. Meanwhile, Canada announces it is increasing SARS airport screening and will hold an international SARS conference this week. 8 / 8

April 29 The Association of Southeast Asian Nations meets at an emergency SARS summit in Bangkok and China and Taiwan commit funding to fight the disease. Meanwhile, the WHO lifts its travel advisory against Toronto.

April 30 Beijing's new mayor says the SARS crisis is severe and Hong Kong reports some patients deemed recovered from the illness have suffered relapses. Meanwhile, Canada holds the first international SARS conference in Toronto and WHO says the SARS death rate worldwide has nearly doubled, from 6 percent to 10 percent.

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