- HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Reuters)
- The deadly SARS virus has pushed Hong Kong's health care system to the
brink of collapse, hospital workers said Thursday, as anxiety grew over
the spread of the flu-like illness.
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- A quarter of Hong Kong's 1,000 cases of Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) are health workers and another 12 were confirmed
with the illness on Thursday.
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- "I am afraid that if more hospital staff get infected,
the entire health care system would collapse," Peter Wong, a spokesman
for three major nurse unions, told a news conference. He said Hong Kong
government hospitals were not providing staff with adequate protective
gear.
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- The government said another three people died of SARS,
bringing the toll to 30, and officials feared the illness could spread
further through the city's crowded tower blocks.
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- Singapore slapped a quarantine on arriving foreign workers
and took drastic measures to enforce quarantine orders on hundreds of people
suspected of exposure to SARS, including mounting "Webcams" in
homes and threatening to use electronic wrist bands.
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- Indonesia said it banned 8,000 workers from traveling
to SARS-hit countries.
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- "We are facing an unprecedented situation. We are
dealing with a serious, unseen threat," Singapore's Minister of Manpower,
Lee Boon Yang, said on Thursday.
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- Singapore is among the countries hardest hit and is trying
to pin down the source of an outbreak in the city's biggest hospital. The
government reported seven new infections, five alone in the sprawling Singapore
General Hospital. It believes an infected elderly man could be the source
of the outbreak.
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- WEBCAMS AND WRISTBANDS
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- There are fresh signs SARS is dealing a heavy economic
blow across Asia, hitting hotels, airlines, restaurants, taxi companies
and other services.
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- As the illness spreads, governments in the region fear
slower economic growth and long-term damage to Asia's image.
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- Nine people have died in Singapore of SARS and 133 have
been infected. The government, which has revised down economic growth forecasts,
has imposed sweeping controls, including home quarantine and school closures.
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- But the virus has kept spreading and staff in five of
the city's six big public hospitals have now been infected.
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- On Thursday, the government said it would quarantine
new foreign workers from SARS-afflicted regions such as China, Hong Kong
and Canada for 10 days.
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- In addition to Web-cameras, anyone caught breaking house
quarantine would be given an electric wristband that alerts authorities
if they leave home.
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- One top health official said Asia would have to live
with SARS.
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- "I think we have to assume that the virus is in
Asia to stay," said Dr Jim Hughes, head of infectious diseases at
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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- "CERTAIN TO SPREAD"
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- Hong Kong's public health care system, one of the most
advanced in Asia, has been overwhelmed by the growing number of SARS patients.
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- The government earlier this week said it was preparing
a "worst-case scenario" of an additional 2,000 cases by the end
of this month. But isolation wards are already overflowing and essential
surgery is being delayed. Trained staff are in short supply.
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- Half of all Hong Kong cases come from Kowloon -- the
most densely populated place on the planet.
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- "Kowloon is the worst disaster area," Fred
Li, a legislator representing the district, said on Thursday.
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- "The disease is certain to spread. People living
here have children and relatives in the next block or estate and they see
each other all the time. The risk of infection is so high."
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- China, where SARS surfaced late last year, has the largest
number of cases but officials say the epidemic is under control and on
the wane.
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- But some doctors have disputed that, with one accusing
the health minister of lying about the number of cases in Beijing.
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- Worldwide, more than 110 people have died and nearly
3,000 have been infected.
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- Malaysia on Wednesday banned all tourists from China
to try to stop the spread of the disease and imposed restrictions on visitors
from other places. The Philippines has said it will discourage travel to
Hong Kong and southern China.
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- Taiwan said two flight attendants had been diagnosed
with SARS, taking the total number of cases in the country to 23.
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- HOTBED FOR VIRUSES
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- SARS has no known cure and health officials say they
still don't know exactly how it spreads. Researchers have yet to pin-point
the virus with certainty but believe the main culprit belongs to a family
of viruses that can cause the common cold.
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- SARS can cause severe pneumonia that cannot be helped
by drugs. About four percent of patients die. Officials say the illness
is spread by droplets such as sneezing and coughing.
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- Hong Kong health officials say cockroaches might have
played a part in one major outbreak at a housing estate by carrying contaminated
human waste from sewage pipes back into apartments.
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- Legislator and surveyor Lau Peng-cheung said most buildings
in the city were so badly designed viruses would thrive in them.
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- "There are a lot of problems in buildings in Hong
Kong," said Lau. "To a certain extent, they are a hotbed for
viruses to proliferate."
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- Air travel has spread the illness around the world. As
fear grows, thousands of people have stopped traveling, crippling Asia's
key tourist industry.
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- Hong Kong's Airport Authority said on Thursday that 31
percent of the day's flights, or 163 flights, were canceled due to dampened
demand for air travel because of SARS.
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- In Singapore, hotel occupancy rates have tumbled by more
than half in three weeks. "This is a problem where people are just
frightened to get on a flight, to travel," said Dinky Puri, general
manager of Singapore's Holiday Inn Park View hotel.
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- "That to me is a crisis," he said.
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- (With additional reporting by Tan Ee Lyn in Hong Kong,
Muklis Ali in Jakarta and Tiffany Wu in Taipei)
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