Posted on 03/20/2003 2:10:55 PM PST by Mother Abigail
Health - AP
Mainland professor who died in Hong Kong spread mysterious form of pneumonia; another death reported
Thu Mar 20, 8:09 AM ET
By HELEN LUK, Associated Press Writer
HONG KONG - An infected medical professor from mainland China apparently carried a mysterious flu-like disease to a Hong Kong hotel where six other people caught the illness, possibly as they waited for elevators or through the air-conditioning system, officials said Thursday.
Some of those he infected are suspected of then carrying the disease into Vietnam, Singapore and Canada, as well as to a Hong Kong hospital where dozens of staff became sick.
The Chinese professor died March 4 — one of six people killed and hundreds sickened by severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, on three continents in recent weeks.
His case bolsters suspicions that the outbreak is linked to an earlier one in China's southern Guangdong province, where an illness killed five people and sickened more than 300.
It is not certain how the disease was spread in the Metropole Hotel, but some experts think it may have been airborne.
"Perhaps they all stood outside the elevator at the same time and someone sneezed or coughed," said Dr. Margaret Chan, the director of the Hong Kong Health Department.
Other theories were being floated.
"It would suggest that it spread through the air-conditioning system, but you can't rule out person-to-person contact, since you don't know if they were even in the same room together," said Ronald Atlas, president of the American Society of Microbiology. "But everything says it is airborne."
Hong Kong's health chief, Dr. Yeoh Eng-kiong, told reporters Thursday he believes the disease has been spread through droplets, which is why most victims have been medical workers or close relatives of victims. But Yeoh acknowledged people elsewhere in the community have been infected, including six members of one family.
Hong Kong said the number of infected people had risen by 20 to 165 as of Thursday afternoon and the World Health Organization (news - web sites) has counted at least 264 people who got sick. Vietnam is the second hardest hit, followed by Singapore.
The disease was spread to Vietnam by an American businessman from Shanghai who stayed at the Metropole in Hong Kong on Feb. 21-22, the same time the professor from China was a guest, officials said. All of those infected at the hotel were on the ninth floor, which now has been closed for sterilization. Meanwhile, Hong Kong officials announced Thursday that the professor's brother-in-law died on Wednesday, becoming the sixth person killed here by the disease. The brother-in-law did not stay in the hotel but he had dined with the professor.
Two other relatives, the professor's wife and a sister, were treated for fever or pneumonia but have recovered and been discharged, said Dr. Tse Lai-yin, a consultant in charge of the Health Department's Disease Prevention and Control Division.
Another Metropole guest, a 78-year-old woman from Toronto, died after returning to Canada, officials here said.
The World Health Organization has confirmed nine deaths from the disease in Hong Kong, Vietnam and Canada, not including the latest Hong Kong death. Five others who died in the earlier outbreak in mainland China, from November to at least February, may be related.
Others infected by the professor included three Singaporean women who were hotel guests and apparently spread the disease to Singapore, a man from Canada who was a guest and a Hong Kong man who went to the Metropole to visit a friend.
That Hong Kong man has been identified as the "index patient" who spread the disease to Hong Kong's Prince of Wales Hospital, where dozens of workers have been sickened, said Health Department spokeswoman Sally Kong.
None of the 200 to 300 workers at the Metropole have become ill and although conditions seem safe there now, the ninth floor remains closed, Chan said. The Metropole was still open, hotel spokeswoman Anita Kwan said. But a group of tourists from Shanghai emerged wearing surgical masks early Thursday and told reporters outside they were seeking different accommodation.
"The Health Department has already indicated that the germ doesn't exist here anymore," Kwan said Wednesday night. But she added that the ninth floor won't be reopened until it has been thoroughly checked. Researchers in Germany, Hong Kong and Singapore have said they believe the illness may have come from something resembling the virus that causes measles, mumps and canine distemper. The WHO has said the focus on the paramyxoviridae family is helpful but more evidence is needed before conclusions can be drawn.
In other developments:
_ Singapore reported three new suspected SARS cases, bringing the number of patients there to 34;
_ Two people with SARS-like victims were placed in isolation wards at two hospitals in Auckland, New Zealand;
_ A flight attendant and a passenger on a Vietnam Airlines flight to Hanoi were hospitalized with suspected SARS;
_ Japanese health officials ordered local authorities to isolate anyone with suffering from SARS symptoms;
_ Health officials said 11 suspected SARS cases have ben reported in the United States.
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