X-Message-Number: 21515 From: "Mark Plus" <> Subject: IHT: In Hong Kong, fast-moving SARS sets off alarm Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 19:22:33 -0800 http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=91387 Copyright 2003 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com In Hong Kong, fast-moving SARS sets off alarm Thomas Crampton/IHT IHT Monday, March 31, 2003 HONG KONG A fast-growing cluster of killer pneumonia infections in a Hong Kong housing estate fueled fears Sunday that the disease known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, may be more contagious than experts believed. The rising concern came as the health authorities named a fifth flight terminating in Hong Kong on which passengers may have been exposed to infection. All passengers who flew aboard Dragaonair Flight 901 from Beijing to Hong Kong on March 26 should contact the health authorities immediately, health officials said. The 60 new infections reported in Hong Kong on Sunday represented the largest number in a single day in any country since the epidemic began to be tracked. But what particularly worried health officials was that more than half the patients lived in Amoy Gardens, a housing estate that already reported 78 cases. We are investigating the Amoy Gardens cluster on all fronts, said Thomas Tseng, the Hong Kong health department s consultant on community medicine. We are checking the air, water, garbage and any possible gatherings. Tseng added that no hypothesis had been ruled out, including one on a newly mutated form of the virus that could undergo airborne transmission or survive extended periods of time on open surfaces. The mysterious illness has infected more than 1,600 people in 15 countries worldwide and killed at least 55, including many doctors and nurses who battled the outbreak. Airlines have said they will slash flight schedules to Hong Kong while the United States this weekend advised Americans to suspend any nonessential travel to the disease hot spots of China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Hanoi. The expert who first detected the outbreak, Dr. Carlo Urbani, died of the illness Saturday. Urbani, 46, an expert on communicable diseases, was the first World Health Organization officer to raise alarm about the outbreak of the new disease after examining an American businessman who had been admitted to a Hanoi hospital. In Singapore, which has the third highest number of reported cases health officials have warned that the virus is likely to persist and have announced a third fatality. Officials in Canada closed a second Ontario hospital and sought voluntary quarantine for at least 1,800 people amid disturbing signs that the infection had spread. In Hong Kong, the transportation hub from which the disease is believed to have spread to three continents, 13 people have died and 530 have been hospitalized with the infection. Following criticism that Hong Kong has reacted too slowly, the government has closed schools for a million students and quarantined a thousand residents. Inside Amoy Gardens on Sunday, a classic Hong Kong-style lower middle-class housing estate of densely packed apartment blocks, residents have started wearing latex gloves in addition to the ubiquitous surgical face masks. The normally bustling ground-floor pedestrian area seemed abandoned, with hastily written notes on shuttered shops announcing closures for at least 10 days. Among the few people walking through the housing estate, many dragged their belongings in suitcases behind them. Several stairways dripped with disinfectant while health officials manned an information table inside the most affected building, Block E. At a community center near Amoy Gardens on Sunday, several dozen residents listened intently to a speech delivered by health care workers. The audience and the speakers all wore surgical masks. Wearing masks has not been part of Hong Kong culture up to now, the masked speaker said from the stage. This must change, he said. Taiwan rethinks China links Prime Minister Yu Shyi-kun of Taiwan said Sunday that his government was weighing a proposal for the temporary shutdown of its limited direct links with China in order to reduce chances for the respiratory illness to spread, Agence France-Press reported from Taipei. Copyright 2003 The International Herald Tribune _________________________________________________________________ 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=21515