- HONG KONG (Reuters) - More
than 100 people in one Hong Kong apartment block were suspected to have
been infected by a deadly pneumonia virus, officials said on Monday, triggering
fears that the killer disease was being spread through air or water.
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- At least two more people died from the Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome (SARS) in Hong Kong during the day, taking the death toll in the
city to 15 and to 61 worldwide.
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- A total of 213 people living in the Amoy Gardens housing
estate were confirmed or suspected to be infected with Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome (SARS), of whom 107 are from Block E of the complex, Health Secretary
Yeoh Eng-kiong told a news conference.
-
- Authorities have quarantined more than 200 other residents
in Block E in an effort to contain the virus, which has infected almost
1,700 people across the world, mostly in Asia.
-
- Dozens of health workers in full surgical gear stood
guard at the entrance of the apartment block to stop any residents from
leaving as policemen in masks cordoned off the area.
-
- But residents said many families had already fled.
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- The number of those infected in Amoy Gardens, in the
heart of the teeming Kowloon district, is almost one-third of the total
number in Hong Kong, a city of seven million people.
-
- Two elderly men died of the disease on Monday, bringing
the death toll in the city to 15.
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- A NIGHTMARE
-
- Amoy Gardens is in a maze of crowded housing estates
and smoke-spewing industrial buildings in one of the most densely-populated
areas in the world.
-
- Proliferation of the virus in such an environment is
certain to create havoc and put immense pressure on public hospitals, which
are already stretched and barely able to cope.
-
- "We are now examining all possible angles, to see
if it is airborne or in the (building's) water mains," a government
spokeswoman said of the virus.
-
- Health Minister Yeoh said: "We are now detecting
the virus in the fecal material (from Amoy Gardens patients). So that would
be one possible potential cause of spread to large populations under unusual
circumstances."
-
- "There was a suggestion that the sewage system was
leaking...we are investigating."
-
- Experts have previously said the virus was carried by
droplets from sneezing or coughing, but the high number of cases at Amoy
Gardens has raised fears the virus could be water or airborne.
-
- "Up till today, it is spread through droplets. But
no one can rule out that it could be airborne, because viruses change all
the time," Yeoh said.
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- DISRUPTIONS
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- Fearful of the disease, some companies have ordered staff
to work from homes while others have begun to organize backup, skeletal
teams in case their workers get infected.
-
- Hong Kong and Singapore have closed schools in a bid
to contain the disease and quarantined those exposed. Besides these two
cities, deaths have also been reported from Vietnam, Canada and from China,
where the disease originated in November.
-
- A doctor from the World Health Organization, who was
infected in Vietnam after he had identified the virus, died in a Bangkok
hospital at the weekend.
-
- The disease has triggered tighter screenings at many
airports and a growing number of countries have advised citizens against
unnecessary travel to the worst-affected areas.
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- In Singapore, nurses have been deployed at the airport
to check incoming passengers.
-
- Apart from scaring away tourists, the epidemic has disrupted
business in Hong Kong. A growing list of shops, banks and offices have
shut after employees were found infected.
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- Some expatriates have departed quietly, taking their
families with them on home leave.
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- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned
on Saturday that the virus may wreak more havoc.
-
- "The potential for infecting larger numbers of people
is great," said its director Julie Gerberding. "We may be in
the early stages of what could be a larger problem."
-
- Cases have also surfaced in the United States, Germany,
Britain, France, Japan, Ireland, Italy and Taiwan.
-
- Almost 1,700 people have been infected worldwide, but
some have since recovered. About four percent of the people who catch it
die from the disease.
-
-
- Comment
-
- From Patricia Doyle, PhD
- dr_p_doyle@hotmail.com
- 3-31-3
-
- Hello Jeff - I believe, more then ever, (and the attached
article you sent proves it) that SARS or CPV is not naturally occurring.
I think that it will do some very odd things i.e. if I am correct and
it is a recombinent of paramyxovirus, coronavirus, maybe mycoplasma pneumonae
strains and some pseudomonas thrown into the soup.
- IF it is not naturally occurring then we won't know how
it will act in the environment. It will be VERY unstable. We can only
pray that it will mutate to harmless and die in the environment. Hum?
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- My best guess, and I will bet the farm, that NO ONE,
the CDC, WHO or government sponsored University PhDs will say that this
is lab developed. They can't. Let's say that they do. Well, where was
the index area of infection? China. Index patient or patients were DOCTORS.
We hadn't heard about patients, only doctors taking ill. (Reminded me
of the Huntsville Texas Mystery Illness fiasco.)
-
- OK, back to logic. IF we admit that the common cold
has been weaponized, then we would have to admit that China has a biological
offense program in action. Then, George W. Bush would have to "fall
onto his sword" and proclaim that China has Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Then people would say, why don't you "disarm" China. Double
Edge Sword. Bush is not going to "fall onto his sword" and admit
that China is involved actively in bioresearch, offensive, that is.
- So, the CDC and WHO will lock step to the beat of the
status quo. SARS simply emerged. It was an animal or bird virus that jumped
the species barrier, end of statment.
-
- I hope that the DNA data will be made public, and I hope
that it will be the real McCoy. I suspect, given the genome research on
various mycoplasma genomes, we shall find particles of organisms consistant
with mycoplasma pneumonae, or m. hyopneumonae. etc etc. China has been
researching pseudomonas strains as well. Pseudomonas has corrosive properties
and can penetrate metal etc. etc.
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- Imagine a common cold that always causes pneumonia and
can penetrate buildings etc etc?
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- Another property of a common cold is the fact that people
do not build up immunity. ERGO, this will reinfect and make the rounds.
Qurantines can be lengthy is this happens. Thus far, no cure for the common
cold. Imagine if this gets loose in a close community like a military
base? and....what about the economy. We see Hong Kong, Singapore, parts
of Canada instituting quarantines. Not so good for the economy if the
quarantine lasts for a long time.
-
- I would concur that SARS/CPV etc would be airborne.
It is strongly evidenced that a coronavirus, i.e. one of the viruses that
causes the common cold, is the agent of SARS. I suspect that they took
a coronavirus genome, in just the right spot (as the Russians did with
Smallpox by adding Ebola or, VEE) genetic material of human metapneumono
virus was added, and in my opinion, genetic material from mycoplasma and/or
pseudomonas was added. This would give us a brand new coronavirus.
-
- I would assume, especially, if I am correct, that they
would have wanted an airborne agent. Weaponizing a common cold, amazing.
-
- Patricia
-
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
- http://www.clickitnews.com/emergingdiseases/index.shtml
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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