CHINA/SINGAPORE: HEALTH EXPERTS IN HONG KONG CONTINUE TO INVESTIGATE OUTBREAK OF SARS VIRUS, LATEST.

Record ID: 645903

  • Title: CHINA/SINGAPORE: HEALTH EXPERTS IN HONG KONG CONTINUE TO INVESTIGATE OUTBREAK OF SARS VIRUS, LATEST.
  • Date: 1st April 2003
  • Summary: (W3) HONG KONG, CHINA (APRIL 1, 2003) (REUTERS) MV/CU: PROFESSOR PETER CAMERON, PRINCE OF WALES HOSPITAL, WORKING AT HIS DESK; VARIOUS OF CAMERON (3 SHOTS) CU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR PETER CAMERON, PRINCE OF WALES HOSPITAL, SAYING: "But basically I'm involved in treating these patients and the risk for me going home and to my family is too great for them to be, to stay in Hong Kong. All employees involved, all health workers involved in this have to take precautions when they go home, they sleep in separate rooms, eat separately, they wear a mask at home. This is not a pleasant way to live your life." (HANDS CUTAWAY) CAMERON SAYING: "And the mortality rate here appears to be less than reported in other places. So I think with good facilities, with good treatment, there is a potential for a lower mortality rate. But in poor countries, basically, everyone who gets it and gets a severe dose of the disease will die." (3 SHOTS) GV/MV: PATIENTS IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM AT THE PRINCE OF WALES HOSPITAL WHERE FIRST HONG KONG PATIENTS APPEARED IN MID-MARCH (5 SHOTS) GV: EXTERIOR OF EMERGENCY CENTRE (W3) SINGAPORE (APRIL 1, 2003) (REUTERS) GV/PAN: EXTERIOR OF NOVENA SHOPPING CENTRE GV/GV/PAN/MV: DESERTED ESCALATORS; EMPTY CORRIDORS AND SHOP; EMPTY RESTAURANT (4 SHOTS) MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) PATRICIA LIN, SALES PERSON AT TEALE SHOP SAYING: "Our business has gone down by forty percent." GV: SIGN "SINGAPORE CHANGI AIRPORT" LV/GVPAN: SINGAPORE AIRLINES BOEING 747 PLANE ON TARMAC; VARIOUS OF PASSENGERS DISEMBARKING, NURSES WITH MASKS WATCHING (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 16th April 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HONG KONG, CHINA / SINGAPORE
  • City:
  • Country: Singapore Hong Kong China
  • Topics: General,Health,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA13JCPA7MBPMXIQO32HSR423D5
  • Story Text: Hong Kong health experts have pursued a life-and-death search to find out why a pneumonia-like virus ran through an apartment block like wildfire in an apparent departure from its previous pattern. In Singapore, traders and travellers continue to feel the impact of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which has killed 62 people from a total of more than 1,700 reported cases worldwide - a death rate so far of 3.5 percent.
    Armed with sampling kits and dressed in white surgical coats, caps, masks and gloves, investigators on Tuesday (April 1) combed through Amoy Gardens apartments, home to almost a third of all cases in Hong Kong which currently has most known victims outside of mainland China.
    Cartons of food and water were being wheeled into Block E which has been sealed off following the discovery that more than 110 people in the block are believed to be infected by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
    SARS has killed 62 people from a total of more than 1,700 reported cases worldwide, a death rate so far of around four percent.
    Canada reported another 31 cases on Monday (March 31), but China, which is identified by most health officials as the origin of the disease, has still not started reporting full figures as requested by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
    Australia reported its first suspected case on Tuesday (April 1) but said the person had since recovered.
    Amoy Gardens is in a maze of crowded housing estates, markets and shops, and some residents from other blocks in the same estate had also fled overnight, fearing they would be next to be quarantined.
    The urgency of the search at Amoy Gardens is to find whether the virus has mutated into an airborne threat. Doctors had thought the disease could be caught only through close contact with spray from patient's coughing, or bodily fluids.
    But over 110 people from Block E have caught SARS. More than 200 are believed to be infected in the whole housing estate.
    Health experts in Hong Kong have ruled out any association with influenza A and B viruses as well as the H5N1 bird-flu virus which jumped the species barrier and killed six people in the territory in 1997, and another man in February.
    According to Hong Kong health officials, SARS is a type of atypical pneumonia, which is usually caused by viruses, such as influenza viruses, adenovirus and other respiratory viruses.
    Atypical pneumonia can also be caused by organisms such as Legionella bacteria.
    WHO says there is no indication SARS is linked to bioterrorism.
    The virus has been found in faeces of patients. Officials say one possible infection source may be a faulty waste pipe at Amoy Gardens which had been spraying tiny clouds of waste matter in the direction of the worst infected block.
    The Hong Kong government put residents of the block under quarantine in their own apartments on Monday (March 31), but hundreds had already fled, and some may be carrying the disease with them.
    A government spokeswoman said officials were now hunting for those who had slipped the quarantine order.
    On Monday (March 31) night, dozens of anxious residents living in blocks which have not been put under quarantine, demanded guidance and advice from health officials on how best to prevent the spread of the virus.
    Residents locked inside Block E watched the meeting from their apartment windows.
    Some of those who first contracted SARS, which puts many of its victims into intensive care with very high fevers, have been cured with a cocktail of anti-viral drugs and steroids.
    Professor Peter Cameron, of the Prince of Wales Hospital, spoke about how the virus is taking its toll on those who are trying to help SARS patients.
    "Basically, I'm involved in treating these patients and the risk for me going home and to my family is to great for them to be , to stay in Hong Kong. All employees involved, all health workers involved in this have to take precautions when they go home, they sleep in separate rooms, eat separately, they wear a mask at home. This is not a pleasant way to live your life," said Cameron.
    Prince of Wales was the hospital where the first patients in Hong Kong appeared in mid-March.
    "The mortality rate here appears to be less than reported in other places. So I think with good facilities, with good treatment, there is a potential for a lower mortality rate.
    But in poor countries, basically, everyone who gets it and gets a severe does of the disease will die," said Cameron.
    The heaviest economic toll was on Asia's airlines and travel companies.
    Shares in both crumbled on Monday (March 31) as other industries started to suffer while the illness spreads.
    In Singapore, business was far from usual at a shopping centre located within the vicinity of the Tan Tock Seng Hospital where SARS victims are being taken.
    Shops and stalls were empty at the Novena shopping centre.
    Dozens of taxis queued at the stand, waiting for passengers - an unusual sight during lunch break.
    Most shopkeepers complained that business has fallen drastically since the outbreak of SARS.
    "Our business has fallen by forty per cent," said sales assistant Patricia Lin.
    Restaurants have also been hit hard as people prefer dining outdoors instead of air-conditioned environments.
    Demand for health insurance has soared by over 100 percent in Singapore following the outbreak.
    Singapore has nearly doubled the number of people ordered to stay at home to 1,514 as it tried to break the cycle.
    At Changi International Airport, nurses wearing surgical masks and gloves screen passengers arriving from SARS-infected countries.
    The outbreak has sent a wave of panic across much of Asia, prompting people to cancel trips to the worst-hit countries and forcing some airlines to reduce flights.
    Some companies are telling staff to work from home, or activating back-up offices in case headquarters are infected.
    Officials in Canada, which has the most number of cases outside Asia, said the virus there had been restricted largely to medical staff and others who came into close contact with a handful of SARS victims who had flown from Hong Kong.
    The hope held by doctors is that the virus's detailed makeup will be pinpointed shortly. One doctor in Hong Kong said that some of the worst-hit patients in Hong Kong were successfully treated using antibodies in serum from recovered patients.
    The presence of antibodies means those who have recovered would likely have developed some level of immunity. But some experts have not ruled out the possibility that a person could be infected again and again.
    Health staff were hit particularly hard when the virus first appeared, but cases among them have fallen sharply in recent days, indicating that precautions in hospitals are working.
    The WHO has now reported cases in Germany, Switzerland, the United States, Britain, France, Ireland, Italy and Taiwan, as well as Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada.
    WHO says the main symptoms of SARS are high fever, dry cough, shortness of breath or breathing difficulties. Changes in chest x-rays, which are indicative of pneumonia, also occur.
    SARS may be associated with other symptoms including chills, headache, muscular stiffness, loss of appetite, malaise, confusion, rash and diarrhea.
    Health experts say the disease has an incubation period of between 2-7 days, with 3-5 days being more common, before victims start showing flu-like symptoms.
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