Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

[Il Anto]

What's going on here?

Is anybody else following this "mysterious" disease. I just read in the New York Times that this thing has spread to the States, not to mention there are many cases in Europe and Toronto. Is anybody else just a tad worried?

Let's discuss.


- Anthony

[Monte Smith]

Here is an e-mail I received from a vendor of mine, a printer in Hong Kong. It shows the level of concern there.

Dear Monte,

It is believe that you have heard some news about the terrible flu in the
South Asia countries. It's lucky that my colleague, friends and family are
healthy. But everybody in HK are worried about this flu, Government annouced
that all the students no need to go to school until next week or further
notice. Also encouraged that the people are not feeling well must consult
the doctor. So, we need to use the face mask to protect ourselve, not sure
whether this is useful or not ?? Actually the no. of case is increasing
everyday. Maybe you have heard that one of block building need to isolate
for inspection and the residents are arranged to stay in the camp site at
least 10 days for observation. These resident cannot go out in order to
aviod the flu spreading. I know that Government had do the best to control
the spreading of flu now. Hopefully, this can be settle down very soon.
Is this flu affect in US seriously ? Hope you're well.

Regards,
K.

[john williams]

I have been following this story closely and yes I am more than a 'tad worried'. It has been a major story for some weeks now. There are a couple of young children infected in Australia who have been isolated. Canada has also had a serious outbreak. I was kind of surprised it has taken so long for someone to bring it up here.


http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stori.../36687/1/.html

US allows quarantines as suspected SARS cases hit 115

By Catherine Drew

US President George W Bush is watching the spread of the mystery pneumonia SARS in the US with concern, according to the presidential spokesman.

The comments from the White House came as the number of suspected SARS cases in the US rose to 115, up from 85 earlier in the week.


However, the US still has not had any deaths.

The White House issued the executive order allowing people suspected of suffering from severe acute respiratory syndrome to be quarantined, if necessary against their will.

"The president has been monitoring events involving that. He has received reports about it, he continues to be concerned with it," spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

"Secretary of Health Tommy Thompson has been leading a group involving the Centers for Disease Control that has been working with the World Health Organization and other groups on the medical protection necessary to combat the disease, as well as working with Chinese authorities, authorities in Hong Kong and elsewhere," he said.

The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta announced that the number of suspected SARS cases had risen dramatically.

Officials there say they are still trying to learn more about the virus.

"There are measures in place that I hope will slow it down and eventually stop it, but I'm not going to be complacent. We're not totally on top of this by any means, I don't predict, and we have to stay tuned and treat this as the global health threat that it is," said Dr Jim Hughes of the CDC.

The most cases have occurred in California, which has 24, and New York, with 16.

The rest are scattered around 26 other states.

The quarantine of a flight from Tokyo in San Jose, California earlier this week due to a SARS scare brought the disease into the headlines.

Airline and ship passengers arriving in the United States from Asia are being given leaflets detailing symptoms of the disease.

Meanwhile American business groups said their members are very concerned about the outbreak.

US companies are ordering employees not to travel to affected countries in Asia and tourists are staying away.

"The main three industries that will have the most immediate and most adverse effect have to be aviation, followed by retail, followed by entertainment," said Mark Fung of Johns Hopkins University.

"A lot of the US companies export a lot of luxury goods and given the economic downturn that is already present, this will just have a more immediate impact. People just aren't going out."

Analysts here are particularly concerned about fall-out from the travel industry, which has already been hit hard by the war in Iraq and a flagging US economy.

Travel operators are reporting an 80 to 90 percent plunge in bookings to Asia over the last two weeks.



http://www.canoe.ca/LondonNews/lf.lf-04-05-0019.html


China sorry over disease
Officials admit they did a poor job of supplying details on the mystery illness.

By AUDRA ANG, AP


FOSHAN, CHINA -- China apologized yesterday for not doing a better job of informing people about severe acute respiratory syndrome as an international medical team went to the city where it believed the mystery illness may have first broken out.

The admission, extraordinary for a government that rarely acknowledges fault, came after escalating criticism abroad -- and one day after the health minister explicitly said China had followed its own rules in dealing with the problem.

"Today, we apologize to everyone," said Li Liming, director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control.

"Our medical departments and our mass media suffered poor co-ordination."

Meanwhile, a sixth death from SARS was reported in Singapore and a 17th in Hong Kong.

A man with SARS symptoms was admitted to hospital in Russia's far east city of Vladivostok amid fears he might be Russia's first case.

As well, possible new cases were reported in Japan and Australia as governments moved to tighten restrictions on arriving passengers.

SARS has killed at least 82 people and infected 2,200 around the world, spread by travellers from Guangdong and neighbouring Hong Kong. At least 46 of the deaths have occurred in China. But seven people have also died in Canada, which has reported well over 100 suspected or probable cases of the disease, most in Ontario.

Three children suspected of having SARS were placed in isolation in a hospital in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday. The three-year-old girl and her brothers, ages six and 18 months, arrived from Toronto, where the infection is thought to have been brought in from Hong Kong.



SARS: Canada cases rise to 129

TORONTO - Canadian health officials reported 31 new cases of the deadly SARS pneumonia virus on Monday (early Tuesday in Manila) as hospital access across Ontario, the country's most populous province, was restricted in bid to contain the outbreak.


The latest figures bring the number of probable and suspect cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) to 129, one of the largest outside Asia. Ontario has been hit with 111 of the cases, with the remainder appearing in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick.


Ontario health officials said restrictive hospital measures put in place in Toronto, such as discouraging visitors and screening patients, would be extended to every hospital in the province of more than 11 million people.


Officials said the virus has been contained largely to medical staff and others who came into close contact with a handful of SARS victims who traveled from Hong Kong.

The danger of SARS

Saturday, April 5, 2003 - Page A22

E-mail this Article
Print this Article



Advertisement






If Canadian health officials needed any affirmation that the outbreak of a strange pneumonia requires extraordinary measures, this week provided it -- again and again. A world-famous cancer hospital in New York warned its doctors not to attend a conference, subsequently cancelled, in Toronto; a nursing association in Ontario cancelled a conference in the city; and the governments of Australia, Ireland and Spain urged people to stay away from Toronto, one of the world's hot spots for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Were these cancellations and warnings medically necessary? Ultimately, for Canadian health officials, the answer should not be terribly important. What really matters is that in a public-health crisis, perception is reality. And the reality is that SARS infects more than just the lungs. It also saps public confidence, the lifeblood of any community.

The potential damage to community health from a loss of confidence is enormous. There is the economic damage from lost tourism, from lost spending by consumers who are afraid to ride transit or stroll through the malls, from a loss of investment during a time of uncertainty. In Asia, where SARS originated and where it is especially rife, growth forecasts have been reduced.

There is also the social damage caused by suspicion and fear. Tensions may occur between employer and employee (at Casino Niagara, three workers were sent home for wearing masks), and between ethnic groups (it is said that some people are staying clear of people of Asian descent). To describe the mood as a "fever of fear," as one report did yesterday, is to indulge in hyperbole. But a poll published in today's Globe and Mail conveys strong feelings. Sixty-six per cent of Canadians believe everyone arriving from disease hot spots in the Far East should be quarantined or not let in, rather than simply screened.

Public health officials are fighting what is and what might be. Encouragingly, a cross-country team of specialists is being formed, to be joined by experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The evidence so far -- in spite of what some armchair quarterbacks are saying -- is that public officials are using the appropriate tools. Hospitals outside of the Toronto area have reinstated all surgical services, but maintained visitor restrictions and infection-control protocols. In the Toronto area, only essential services are being offered.

Thanks to the public-health efforts, SARS is not raging like a bull; it is more a many-headed serpent, still dangerous, still a mystery.


Honestly, this stuff scares the shit out of me

[patricia]

Four deaths, so far, on the East Coast of Canada, so far, one on the West Coast, scores infected. Asian air passengers wearing face-masks. Elective surgery, which includes heart surgeries, postponed. Lots of fear of infection, on both coasts, here in Canada. Voluntary quarantine being recommended, for those who are found to have been exposed.

[Tom Storer]

Two or three cases so far in France, I believe, including a doctor who had been treating SARS patients in Hong Kong.

I'll just stick my head in the sand, thank you. Let me know when it's safe to come out.

[Tanager]

I haven't heard of any cases in India, but I'm worried as hell about when (I don't consider it an "if") it will make it there.

[Monte Smith]

Two of my peeps just got back from the Bologna childrens book fair, where of course South Asian printers and packagers were exhibiting. So I am waiting first for them and then for me to come down with this season's plague. There have been no deaths in the USA yet, so while I have concern about SARS, it still doesn't rise to the mortality rate of heart disease or car crashes or the auto-erotic asphyxiation which Pete C. recommended I try on another thread.

[Monte Smith]

What? Haven't heard about that, walto. I recall a case in Britian that involved a Tory. Other than that, the lead singer of INXS.

[Brian Olewnick]

Some numerical common sense about SARS from an Op-Ed piece by Philip Browning, writing from Hong Kong, in today's NYT:

"The disease is routinely described as "highly contagious". If it were, there would now be tens of thousands of sufferers in this crowded city of 6.8 million. But there have been only 833 cases, or one in 80,000. Most have been within three clusters--one housing block and two hospitals that treated the early victims

Even among the infected in Hong Kong, fewer than 15 percent have needed intensive care. The mortality rate has been around 4 percent, the norm here for pneumonia, which kills 2,000 to 3,000 people a year. The vast majority of the deaths have been elederly people and those with chronic illnesses.

Disease threats make big stories, so the news media have focused on the day-to-day progress of the illness and tend to lose perspective..."


ie, yes it's serious. It's not the end of the world, however.

[Dennis Gonzalez]

Yahoo! just announced that SARS is supposedly carried by cockroaches...!?

[Jimmy Cantiello]

I heard on the news this morning that business in Chinatown in NYC is down 80% as a result of the SARS scare. Toronto has also been hard hit economically............

[Pete C]

Originally posted by Jimmy Cantiello
I heard on the news this morning that business in Chinatown in NYC is down 80% as a result of the SARS scare. Toronto has also been hard hit economically............

80% sounds extremely exaggerated, but:

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Chinatown shaken by SARS fear
By JOANNE WASSERMAN
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU
Saturday, April 26th, 2003

With her two children out of school last week, Diemetra Decolvenaere wanted to treat them to a special dim sum lunch in Chinatown.
They had plenty of restaurants to choose from. Many on the narrow, winding streets were empty or barely half-full.

"I invited some friends but they didn't want to come because of SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome]," said Decolvenaere, as she and Elizabeth, 12, and Michael, 9, ate dumplings filled with pork, chicken and shark fin at the Golden Unicorn on East Broadway in a sparsely filled dining room.

"Usually, you can't get into these places," said Decolvenaere. "I told my friends they were being silly."

Rumors of SARS has hurt the restaurants in Chinatown in the last month, damaging an already-fragile industry hard hit by the triple impact of Sept. 11, 2001, the war in Iraq and the bad economy.

And despite exhortations from politicians that Chinatown is safe — Mayor Bloomberg ate lunch at Sweet & Tart last week and Sen. Chuck Schumer and his family dined at Ping's — the crowds have not come back.

No one is quite sure how to convince people the neighborhood's restaurants are safe.

"Business is terrible," said John Wang, executive director of the Asian American Business Development Center. "The psychology of fear has taken over."

Workers laid off

Nobody has talked about closing up, said Wang, but restaurant workers have been laid off and some places have reduced work schedules to stay afloat.

"When they pay $1,000 a month rent, I don't know how much longer they can hold on," said Don Lee, executive director of the Chinatown Economic Development Project.

Restaurants and the garment industry are the two main employers in Chinatown. There are about 300 restaurants in the neighborhood, 25% of all the Chinatown businesses, according to a recent study.

"A restaurant will hire 20 or 30 people," said Lee. "If they close and become a gift shop, they'll hire four or five."

For Chinatown's restaurants, SARS is the latest in a series of crises. After the terror attacks, neighborhood streets were blocked off and diners could not get in.

Just as business got a bit better last spring, the economy took a dive, followed by the war in Iraq. New Yorkers did not spend money. Worried tourists did not travel.

March was better when the Chinese New Year brought 500,000 people to the neighborhood, Lee said.

Then came rumors of SARS. One had a Bayard St. restaurant owner dying of SARS.

It wasn't true, but the rumor caused a ripple effect on the economy. Wai Lau, 62, a waiter at Wo Hop on Mott St., said his tips went from a high of $300 to barely $200 weekly.

"Slow is slow," said Lau, a waiter for 27 years. "We don't know when the customers are coming." His boss also has talked about cutting workers' hours, Lau said. "I have a family. Good thing my children are grown."

Nancy Hui, manager of Ping's, said business is down by 40% on weeknights and 30% on weekends. She has cut the hours of her 30 workers.

"Lately things have not been too good," said Hui. "We're trying our best."

When Ping's opened in 2000, its fresh seafood dishes got a stack of favorable reviews that brought long lines. After Sept. 11, Ping's took a terrible hit.

Hui persevered. She kept Ping's open, and the crowds mostly came back — never like before the attack, but enough to stay in business.

Hui said she will hang on again, hoping for the same outcome.

When the Schumers ate there, Hui said, they expressed the same wish heard in restaurants throughout Chinatown: "They hope this goes away soon."

[patricia]

Although there have now been nine deaths in Toronto, it's not the huge problem that everyone seems to think. Yes, lots of people have been infected, but people are not dropping like flies. So far, the virus is limited, in Canada, to Toronto and Vancouver.
Because it originated in Asia, restaurants and other Asian businesses are, indeed, suffering, as well as business travel. I suspect that being able to point the finger at a specific group makes some people feel that if they stay away from Asians, they are immune. The virus is not sweeping through the country, like a plague, although, of course it's serious. Everything that can be done, is being done.

[mke]

The ostracisation Asians have faced due to SARS is ridiculous. At the moment, simply being Asian makes you "untouchable". There was a case here told to me by a med student friend, of about a dozen Chinese people arriving at a hospital and being denied entry because of SARS fears. After several hours and much hullabaloo, because a translator had to be found in the middle of the night, it was discovered that the Chinese people had been in Belgium for 6 months...

As Brian's article pointed out, there is no proof that SARS is really more dangerous than anything else.

[Canuck Don]

I live about 100 miles from Toronto ,15 from Niagara Falls.The scare even hit my small town.I took my Ma to her Dr. appointment last week and couldn't get inside till filled out a large questionare outside the door.Had stack of forms on the ground and had to fill out and slip under the door.The girl read it and if approved let you in to see the Dr.Must have been 15 people waiting outside the door to get in 1 at a time.Questions like have you been to China in the last 2 weeks.
Have you had a cough in the last 10 days.
Sore throat,diarrea,headache,stomach ache.
Been in contact with anyone with sars.
and about 10 more questions.
If answered yes to even 1 questions..would not let you in and were told to go to the nearest hospital for sars check.
I had to go to the lab for my colesteral blood work check and it was the same there also.
At our hospital..If you have a relative or friend in the hospital for whatever medical problem and you are going to visit.You have to meet with nurse at the door and answer questions before you can go in and if they think you might be affected they take you right away in a special entrance up to the 5 th. floor and have you checked for sars and they can quarantine you there for 10 days and you cann't do nothing about it.People are staying away from visting there sick friends or family that are in the hospital for fear that they will contain them for 10 days .
My Wife and I went out on Mon.to our fav.Oriental eating place and usually at noon it is full.There were only 4 people in the place.
My Niece owns a Travel agency..She said business is awfull.No one is getting plane tickets or arranging for holidays.Business just dropped bad in the last 3 weeks.People are buying surgical masks at drugstores and only allowed to buy 5 masks per customer.It's a serious thing and I suppose it's best to be cautious but they might be overdoing it a bit I feel.

[mjb]

I live in Toronto, if you call that living. My office is just south of Spadina & Dundas - heartland of Chinatown. The stats tell me not to worry and I do not.

There is less traffic but the mood is not too down ... although the travel & entertainment industries are being badly hit. The long term effect is likely to be significant.

As the reporter said on The Daily Show upon being asked if there was panic in Toronto - "Panic, John? I'm not sure these people are even awake."

I suspect that the Mayor - Mel Lastman - is a more significant threat to our well being. You may have seen his astonishing performance on CNN - take a look at his press conference found at HERE

Anyone coming to the Toronto Jazz Festival?

[Jazzooo]

MJB said "I suspect that the Mayor - Mel Lastman - is a more significant threat to our well being. You may have seen his astonishing performance on CNN - take a look at his press conference"

I don't know a thing about the man, but I didn't see anything at that link that seemed strange to me--jus a guy who is pissed at his city being innacurately labeled a SARS hot spot. Am i missing something?

[mjb]

[SIZE=3][FONT=century gothic][COLOR=darkblue]Doug, I take it you missed seeing him on CNN? It has become notorious. He said he didn't know what WHO is, that "they are somewhere in Geneva, he didn't know how many SARS cases had been identified in Toronto, how many were current etc etc. A transcript is HERE

Go back to the site I linked and click on the Real Video presentation at "Mel Lastman comments after World Health Organization's travel advisory."

[Gary Sisco]

Worry of the week.

More people die every year in the US alone from the common flu.

And, in any case, there is nothing that can be done about the spread of the virus, so why panic about it? I can't be bothered to worry about that which I can do nothing about. I might as well worry about gravity.

What's next week's worry?

[patricia]

Originally posted by mjb


Anyone coming to the Toronto Jazz Festival?

mjb,
You're our guy in Toronto.
Since I'm pretty sure I will only die once in my life, I'm interested in any info you can pass on to the rest of us, re the Jazz Festival. Maybe you can post a list of the artists planning to appear and various and sundry.
I'm game for heading out to Toronto, if anyone else is and it fits into my schedule.

Anyone else??


Gary, thanks for putting this into perspective. We're all going to die of something, someday, but probably not this year.

[Ron Thorne]

I'm not a tragic kind of person, however the following comment seemed somewhat short-sighted and unnecessarily fatalistic to me.
_____________________________________________________

"And, in any case, there is nothing that can be done about the spread of the virus, so why panic about it?" - Gary Sisco
_____________________________________________________

Nothing that can be done about it? Are you kidding?

Please do some research, then volunteer.

[mjb]

Originally posted by patricia
mjb,
Maybe you can post a list of the artists planning to appear and various and sundry.

Not terribly adventurous but better than some recent years ...

Here is the link - Toronto Jazz Festival

Actually a number of dates I will want to get to.

[Jimmy Cantiello]

I hate to admit it but gravity always worried me..................

[Gary Sisco]

Hey, it's the only thing keeping me on the planet...

What, I'm supposed to be a SARS activist now and volunteer? For what?

In a global economy, people will travel globally, and the virus will spread. This is inevitable. I can't worry about things like that when there is enough to worry about that *can* be dealt with by the likes of me. There is no way, now, that globalism can be reversed or even controlled. So, geographic boundaries to such things, like the oceans once were, for example, are meaningless now and not boundaries at all.

To me, it's worry of the week.

We have a friend who chainsmokes cigarettes, drinks way too much, and is very much overweight from eating a diet that is only food if you stretch your imagination to its limits -- but who continuously goes into a panic about things like SARS and anthrax. Go figure. Her pleasures alone are certain to kill her, yet she doesn't even spend a millionth of the time worrying about that than she does about catching anthrax in the mail.

[patricia]

mjb,
Keep us all updated on the Jazz Festival, please.


Gary,
Good points. I wasn't kidding when I said that something is going to kill each and every one of us, someday. But, we can't barricade ourselves in our homes, just in case we catch some loathesome disease. I don't mean that we shouldn't be concerned, but I don't think that paranoia should reign. Reasonable precautions are a good idea, but chances are huge that none of us will contract SARS.

I've posted this quote before, but it's still valid, I think.
It's "Live!!! Life is a banquet and most poor bastards are starving to death."
["Auntie Mame" by Patrick Dennis]

[Douglas]

Finally some action to stop the virus spreading