China Announces First SARS Death This Year, Detains Hundreds of Citizens
NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, April 23, 2004
BEIJING – China on Friday reported the world's first SARS death this year and
ordered local officials to start screening thousands of travelers for fevers at
airports and train stations to block a new outbreak.
Hundreds of people with possible exposure to the virus were being held under
observation in connection with the latest cases, centered so far on medical
workers. The government confirmed that two laboratory employees had the disease
and listed a nurse as a suspected case.
The lab workers were identified as a 31-year-old man from Beijing and a
26-year-old woman from central Anhui province, both employees of China's
Centers for Disease Control in Beijing. The 20-year-old nurse works in a
Beijing hospital.
The fatality was the mother of the woman from Anhui, and is believed to have
caught the virus from her daughter, the government said. The daughter was
treated last month at a Beijing hospital, where she came into contact with the
nurse.
"When the daughter was ill, the mother accompanied her all the time," the
Health Ministry said on its Web site.
The mother, hospitalized April 8 with a fever and unidentified virus, died
Monday and was cremated, the ministry said. It said she had a heart problem,
though it wasn't clear whether that was related to her death.
The women took several train journeys together between Beijing and Anhui and
might have exposed many people to the virus, said Maria Cheng, a World Health
Organization spokeswoman in Geneva.
Hospitals along the rail line have been put on alert to report any cases of
pneumonia, she said.
"Here it looks like we had human-to-human transmission and there's clearly a
travel history where they might have exposed other people," Cheng said.
The WHO is considering sending experts to China to help officials there to
trace the women's movements over the past few weeks, she said.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome emerged in China's southern province of
Guangdong and killed 349 people in the country's mainland. Worldwide, 774
deaths were reported. More than 8,000 people were sickened. China reported its
last SARS fatality last July.
In December and January, four cases were reported in Guangdong. All four
patients recovered.
China was harshly criticized for withholding information about the disease when
it first broke out last year. This time, China will act quickly, Vice Health
Minister Zhu Qingsheng said at a meeting of Asian health ministers in Malaysia
on Friday.
"We are prepared," Zhu said. "We are confident that SARS will not spread like
it did in the past."
The Health Ministry said it had issued an emergency notice ordering a
nationwide effort to prevent SARS. Local authorities were told to resume filing
daily status reports on the disease, even if they have no cases.
The government said it would disinfect public buildings and take the
temperatures of travelers at all ports of entry.
"Anyone who has a temperature over 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit) will
be taken to the hospital," said a ministry statement published in newspapers.
"No one will be exempt."
In Hong Kong, health workers were deployed at the airport and at a railway
station to check the temperatures of passengers arriving from the Chinese
mainland.
When the SARS outbreak was at its peak last year, Beijing was the hardest-hit
city in the world. Schools, cinemas and restaurants were shuttered to prevent
the spread the virus through crowded areas. Thousands of people were
quarantined in their homes.
On Friday, the ministry said 117 people were quarantined in Anhui and one
person apparently had fever _ a key symptom. In Beijing, 188 people were
quarantined and five reportedly had fevers.
At Ditan Hospital, a Beijing facility specializing in communicable diseases, 52
patients were relocated to make room for possible cases, said Fan Yinglong, an
official from the city government.
"This is a preventive measure taken by the hospital based on the city's
contingency plan," Fan said.
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| User: "Zak" |
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| Title: Re: SARS is back |
24 Apr 2004 10:36:09 AM |
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On 24 Apr 2004 11:52:16 GMT, (TonyZ2001) wrote:
China Announces First SARS Death This Year, Detains Hundreds of Citizens
Yeah So?
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