X-Message-Number: 21467 From: "Mark Plus" <> Subject: NYTimes: Fear of New Virus Grows as Hong Kong Official Falls Ill Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 22:24:50 -0800 http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/25/international/asia/25HONG.html?ex=1049173200&en=2ea758865e894774&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE March 25, 2003 Fear of New Virus Grows as Hong Kong Official Falls Ill By KEITH BRADSHER HONG KONG, March 24 Fears of a new respiratory illness deepened today as all public hospitals reduced nonessential services, workers and students were told to stay home if they felt sick and one of the two top officials handling the outbreak was himself hospitalized. Restaurants here are becoming less busy, and many visitors are canceling trips as the illness, called SARS, for severe acute respiratory syndrome, continued to spread. Some residents are wearing face masks whenever they leave home, and many stores have sold out of masks. Health officials told doctors to wear masks not just in hospitals but at their offices when seeing patients with routine complaints. The outbreak is beginning to change daily life here as people warily watch their neighbors on buses and ferries, while shunning people with a cough or a sneeze. Almost all the people on the streets these days are likely to say they are frightened. "I am terrified," said Linda Ng, a 35-year-old sales clerk who has kept her healthy 2-year-old son out of preschool for the last week for fear that he will contract the illness. "When people cough, I cover up my mouth." Other Asian countries are also becoming increasingly worried, with Singapore announcing tonight that it would use a seldom-invoked law to quarantine 740 people in their homes for 10 days, with the threat of stiff fines if they venture out. Singapore has had 65 people fall sick with SARS, and the quarantined people had been exposed to it. One of the biggest shocks here came this morning, when the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, a government-controlled organization that runs the city's public hospitals, announced that Dr. William Ho, the authority's chief executive, had been hospitalized with pneumonia and other symptoms consistent with SARS, although his exact illness had not been completely diagnosed. He had become a familiar face on television during news conferences about the outbreak along with Dr. Yeoh Eng-kiong, the territory's secretary of health, welfare and food. Dr. Ho had been meeting regularly to review the outbreak with all of the city's top political leaders, including Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong's chief executive. While Dr. Ho's illness had not been fully diagnosed, the territory's political leaders were nonetheless warned by health officials to pay attention to whether they might be developing any of the symptoms. The disease has particularly infected doctors and nurses, apparently because patients become extremely infectious when they are very ill, and Dr. Ho had been visiting sick doctors and nurses at the hospitals he oversees. The fact that he became ill despite taking many precautions was the talk of Hong Kong today. "The sickness of Dr. Ho makes me more terrified," said Rebecca Yuen, a 40-year-old accountant. She said she had been trying to buy a mask last week but had not been able to find one. More than 180 students have been banned from school because they have close family members who are sick. Seven schools have been closed for at least a week because one or more students or staff have fallen ill, mostly children infected by parents who were doctors or nurses. The total number of cases here increased by 18 today, as 7 more medical workers and 11 relatives, friends and other contacts of infected people were diagnosed with pneumonia. This brought to 260 the total number of atypical pneumonia cases linked to the illness, with 5 more probable cases. Five people were discharged from hospitals on Sunday, bringing the total to 12, but 2 more also died, bringing the death toll here to 10. Having tried repeatedly earlier this month to allay the fears of residents and visitors, even criticizing foreign governments for expressing concern, Dr. Yeoh was more worried today, warning that the territory faced "a really very alarming disease." Health officials have advised residents to avoid crowded, poorly ventilated places. But that is hard in Hong Kong: the territory is the world's most densely populated major city. The World Health Organization has scheduled a regional conference here next week with representatives from the four places that together account for most of the illnesses: Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore and China's Guangdong province, which adjoins Hong Kong and is suspected by medical researchers to be where the outbreak began. _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=21467