- The friendly staff at the Hualian supermarket in a quiet
residential area of Shanghai shake their heads: 'There's no vinegar here
- it's been completely sold out because of the danger.'
-
- Millions of Chinese are stockpiling vinegar as a supposed
disinfectant against a mystery pneumonia virus in southern China. The panic
has even reached Shanghai, a day's train journey from its source in Guangdong
province
-
- More than 300 people were reportedly affected by the
unidentified bug which first appeared in November: five have died. Although
no new cases have been reported for several days, there is alarm.
-
- Hundreds of tons of antibiotics and other medicines to
tackle respiratory
- infection are being rushed to Guangdong, but vinegar
is still in high demand.
-
- Many believe that if a pan of vinegar is boiled until
it evaporates, the steam
- will be an effective disinfectant against disease. Four
extra deaths were reported last week as a result of the vinegar being boiled
over coal-burning stoves which gave off lethal fumes.
-
- Two were in Foshan, where a pan was left boiling overnight,
killing an 18-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy. Their mother is critically
ill.
-
- Herbal medicines and face-masks have become unobtainable
in and around the provincial capital of Guangzhou.
-
- Early in the week city officials took to radio and television
to try to quell the panic. People should 'ignore rumours and trust the
government to contain the spread of the virus', said Vice-Mayor Chen Chuanyu.
-
- Health bureau chief Huang Jiongli advised the young and
elderly to stay away from crowds. But many ordinary people agree with the
Guangzhou-based Nanfang Weekend - one of China's most popular newspapers
- that it is wrong to criticise them for spreading rumours.
-
- The reason why scare stories spread, says the newspaper
in an outspoken editorial, was because of 'a lack of authoritative information'.
It blames the government and media for failing to act sooner. The panic
was given a further boost by growing fears of war in Iraq.
-
- On Thursday one supermarket was invaded by customers
grabbing supplies off the shelves with shouts of 'the war is coming'.
-
- A Guangdong official has appealed to the public not to
stockpile rice, edible oil and salt and insisted that the province's rice
reserves were capable of supporting local residents for more than six months'.
Prices of these commodities rose several times on Wednesday: a bag of salt,
which usually
- costs one yuan (8p), was being sold for eight times that.
Official inspection teams have been sent to check prices in the markets.
The scare has also focused attention on the widespread scandal of over-priced
medicines in a system where the profit motive has long ago replaced earlier
ideals of socialist healthcare.
-
- Last week a press conference in Beijing was called to
announce measures to correct this 'unhealthy tendency'. Ten hospitals nationwide
were 'named and shamed' for selling medicines above the fixed ceiling.
-
- National health officials say that laboratory tests are
being carried out urgently in Beijing to identify the cause of the outbreak,
but it is believed to be a form of viral pneumonia because many doctors
and nurses caught it from hospital patients. However, the authorities appear
to have acted slowly,
- ignoring the rumours which were given an extra spin by
urban China's new technology boom. Stories of a raging epidemic spread
quickly in internet chat-rooms and through short messages on mobile phones.
-
- Respiratory diseases are common in the spring, when southern
China is subject to rapid temperature changes, said Guangdong officials.
-
- Guangzhou railway station, which is packed with returning
holidaymakers and migrant workers at the end of the Chinese New Year period,
is being disinfected daily. The region has been associated with several
serious flu outbreaks in recent decades. In 1968-69 an epidemic of 'Hong
Kong flu' spread
- to the West, causing thousands of deaths.
-
-
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,895111,00.html
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