By DIRK BEVERIDGE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONG KONG (AP) – Asian governments on Tuesday ordered measures ranging from new
quarantines
to travel restrictions in an effort to contain the spread of a flu-like
illness that has killed at least 62 people.
In Hong Kong, hundreds of people remained quarantined inside a 19-story
Hong
Kong apartment building after 213 people from the same complex were
hospitalized, with 185 showing SARS symptoms.
An official proposed converting rural camps into quarantine centers in
Hong
Kong, where more than 600 people have been infected and 15 have died.
Gordon Tam, a spokesman for the Leisure and Cultural Services
Department,
said four such camps are ready if necessary.
In Australia, authorities announced the nation’s first case Tuesday – a
man
who had been in Singapore where tough quarantine measures are now in
place.
He has recovered and the illness has not spread, health authorities
said.
Health officials in China urged physicians treating cases of severe
acute
respiratory syndrome, or SARS, to disinfect everything they touch and
wear
12-layer surgical masks.
Thailand invoked an emergency regulation to give health officials the
authority to quarantine people for up to two weeks arriving travelers
suspected of having the illness.
Scientists have yet to identify the disease that has sickened more than
1,600 people, mostly in Asia, and they are working hard to find a cure.
Its initial symptoms include fever, dry cough and shortness of breath.
Taiwan banned boats from sailing between an outlying island chain and
mainland China, where the disease was first detected in southern
Guangdong
province in November.
In Canada, where a health emergency has been declared in Ontario
province,
Toronto authorities reported that at least two children had been
hospitalized with the disease, and three others had symptoms.
Taiwan temporarily banned shipping traffic between the Chinese mainland
and
the Matsu Islands, some 6 miles off China’s southern coast – because the
islands’ clinics wouldn’t be able to cope with a major outbreak, the
government said.
Taiwan’s known SARS cases remained at 13 Tuesday, while authorities
issued
more than 800 quarantine orders to people who had come into contact with
patients.
Meanwhile, the disease was causing other disruptions.
In Geneva, the World Economic Forum said it has postponed until fall a
Beijing meeting of business and government leaders because participants
were
concerned about the disease.
The Olympic Council of Asia decided to shift the site of its April 22-23
meeting from Vietnam, where four people have died from SARS, to
Thailand.
The World Health Organization said researchers hope to pinpoint the
cause of
the illness soon.
A WHO spokesman said Tuesday that investigators were also still awaiting
permission to visit Guangdong where they hope to find clues into the
disease’s origin and spread.
“The Chinese government has not covered up. There is no need,” Foreign
Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Tuesday. “We have nothing to hide.”
Barely an hour later, a CNN satellite feed to an apartment compound
housing
foreigners in Beijing went black during a report on the illness –
something
that has happened in the past when the news network reports about the
banned
Falun Gong spiritual movement or other stories that make the communist
government uneasy.
Despite the silence, many Chinese have learned about the disease from
foreign broadcasts and the Internet. Pharmacies in Beijing are selling
out
of surgical masks and report swift sales of herbal remedies often
credited
with preventing infection.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/thrive/2003/apr/01/040103121.h
tml
China should be quarantined over pneumonia ‘cover-up’: US paper
The world should cut all travel links to China for the “grossly negligent” way it has handled a killer pneumonia virus which has now infected 1,700 people in 15 countries, US newspaper The Wall Street Journal said.
The paper, which deemed Beijing’s actions as a “cover-up” noted that mystery still surrounds the virus, which erupted in southern China and has now killed at least 62 people.
“But there’s no mystery about why it is spreading worldwide,” the paper said in its lead editorial.
“This is the price of China’s initial cover-up.
“Given Beijing’s refusal to take even elementary public health measures, some hard choices are called for.
“The most effective way to halt the spread of the disease would be for other countries to suspend all travel links with China until it has implemented a transparent public health campaign.”
It would also be necessary to suspend flights to Hong Kong, which has become a transit point for travellers spreading the disease, the editorial said.
China provided little information about the virus on Monday, which it said last week had killed 34 people nationwide.
But regional airlines have already cut some operations to China and elsewhere amid the scare.
The United States last week curtailed government visits to China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan and warned Americans against travel there due to the outbreak of the mysterious disease.
Concluding its acidic editorial, the newspaper blamed China for covering up health problems in the past, adding “this time China’s problem is also the world’s, and a global quarantine may be the only way to get it to act responsibly”.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s821101.htm
Posting date: 2/Apr/2003
Original article date: 1/Apr/2003
Category: Media Reports
