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Posted on 04/08/2003 7:48:59 PM PDT by Dog Gone

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Exhausted doctors and nurses are camping out in Hong Kong government hospitals, too afraid to go home.

Isolation wards are overflowing. Essential surgery is being delayed.

The territory's public healthcare system, one of the most advanced in Asia, has been overwhelmed by a deadly respiratory virus. And, according to doctors and administrators, the worst is yet to come.

The government is bracing for up to 3,000 people infected with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) by the end of this month, more than three times the number now.

"Some SARS cases are not even being placed in isolation wards and the possibility of cross infection is very great," said Henry Yeung of the Hong Kong Doctors Union.

"Some patients with brain tumors have had their operations delayed, the same with a lot of other important surgeries."

Many patients have been forced to go to private clinics, which themselves have been swamped by people turning up with coughs and sniffles.

Some doctors have been sending anyone with suspicious symptoms straight to public hospitals instead of doing preliminary screening, adding to the load.

"Our resources are already in shortage and it will be worse further down the road," said Leung Ka-lau, who heads the Hong Kong Public Doctors Association.

Several doctors told Reuters that intensive care units have been stretched far beyond capacity.

PROTECTIVE GEAR HARD TO FIND

Hong Kong has been hardest hit by SARS after mainland China, where the disease surfaced in the southern province of Guangdong. Nearly 900 people in the territory have been infected and 23 have died.

Ten to 20 percent of SARS patients end up in intensive care.

The government has ordered more respirators to cope with the flood of patients, but doctors said it will take time for medical staff to learn how to operate the new equipment.

Supplies of protective equipment are tight all over the world.

Adding to the stresses on the healthcare system, one in four patients are doctors and nurses who treated victims, compounding the manpower shortage. Some of those still working are afraid to go home in case they infect their families.

One doctor estimated the average cost of treating each patient was around $12,800 over three weeks, with the government picking up almost all of the tab. Most people in Hong Kong go to heavily subsidized public hospitals.

Yeung said some recovered patients have shown signs of delirium, possibly side-effects of the drugs used to treat them, and will require weeks of monitoring. It could be months before they can return to work.

CRIPPLING DISEASE

The epidemic, which has killed over 100 people around the world, is also straining the health care system in Canada, which has the third largest number of infections.

Some hospitals in the province of Ontario have been forced to delay breast cancer surgery. Hundreds of healthcare workers have been quarantined.

In Singapore, the disease has spread to a fifth public hospital despite efforts to put all infected patients in one hospital to contain the disease. The government has called out paramedics from the army to help nurses screen incoming passengers at the airport.

Vietnam, an early hot spot for the disease, appeared to have been more successful in containing the disease in one hospital, the private French-Vietnam hospital in Hanoi.

However, four new cases in the past week outside Hanoi have raised questions about whether it really has SARS under control.

A lack of state-of-the-art medical facilities, including respirators, was a key reason the State Department urged Americans to consider leaving Vietnam. (With additional reporting by Christina Toh Pantin and Richard Hubbard)

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