SARS measures too late [in China]

So African News ^ | 24 April 2003

[blam]

Welcome aboard. Thanks for your inputs.

[blam]

Singapore chokes on SARS-related food scare

April 21 2003 at 01:57PM
By Jason Szep

Singapore - Singaporeans faced a shortage of fresh vegetables on Monday after a SARS outbreak forced health authorities to shut the nation's biggest wholesale vegetable market and quarantine all of its 2 400 workers.

Stocks at food stalls ran low and prices of some popular vegetables had doubled two days after the government announced a 10-day closure of the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Market, the source of 70 percent of Singapore's vegetables.

The 24-hour market was shut late on Saturday after three workers there contracted the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus, posing the first real challenge to the government's strategy of confining SARS to hospitals.

'I would say 80 percent of my suppliers have been affected' "I would say 80 percent of my suppliers have been affected," said Goh Loon, a 42-year-old food seller at a stall run by his family for more than 30 years in Singapore's Holland Village.

"There's nowhere to get supply. I have never seen anything like this," said Goh, pointing to nearly empty boxes of bean sprouts and eggplants at his stall.

Singaporeans eat about 1 000 tons of vegetables a day, with about 30 percent bought in supermarkets and the rest at Pasir Panjang, which supplies hundreds of small, family-run food stalls such as Goh's in densely packed neighbourhood food markets.

Shutting down Pasir Panjang is part of an aggressive strategy by Singapore authorities to "isolate and contain" SARS following 178 confirmed cases in the city-state, the world's fourth highest number, and 14 deaths including one worker from Pasir Panjang.

The government said it was working with supermarkets to replenish stocks by increasing direct imports from Australia, New Zealand and the United States, but concedes that Singapore faces a "significant disruption of vegetable supply" until April 29.

State-run grocer NTUC FairPrice, which directly imports 90 percent of its vegetables and fruit, said it was confident it had enough stocks to meet demand over the next few days and had tripled its orders for leafy vegetables.

Shops have reported scenes of panic buying, including cabbages bought in multiple basketloads and runs on popular vegetables such as "chai sin" and "gai lan" used in stir fry dishes.

Goh said some of the prices at his stall had doubled, and media reports said "chai sin" sold at SIN$3 (about R14) a kg in some stalls compared with the usual SIN$2,50.

Minister of Health Lim Hng Kiang urged retailers to avoid price mark ups, and NTUC FairPrice said its prices would remain stable during the 10-day shutdown of Pasir Panjang.

Lim also said residents had an excuse for the next 10 days to "skip their greens".

"You can make up for it after the 10 days," he told a news conference late on Sunday.

Pasir Panjang's closure also affects farmers in neighbouring Malaysia, who supply 45 percent of all Singapore's imported vegetables - most of it destined for Pasir Panjang on flatbed trucks driven over a narrow causeway between the countries.

Authorities also said Malaysian vegetable-truck drivers who had recently made runs to Pasir Panjang would not be allowed back into Singapore for 10 days.

Malaysian drivers bound for Singapore's supermarkets must have their temperature taken and fill in declarations saying they did not go to Pasir Panjang between April 5 and April 19.

[k omalley]

SARS is not an STD but a corona virus from the family of the common cold virus, only this is a killer cold virus. It spreads by droplets in the air from infected people coughing and sneezing, and now there is evidence that it spreads from the gastrointestinal system and can live on surfaces for 24 hrs.

[flamefront]

Thanks for your report. BTW speaking of Chinese sanitary practices, I would be grateful to know how is the 'nightsoil' business doing today in China?

[aristeides]

It's beginning to look as if the death rate is a lot higher than 4%.

[aristeides]

I was given the name "Ma" in Chinese class too. Ma Duenn Fu. (My real last name is a "Mac" name, and it's as close as they could get to that.) I understand a lot of Moslems in China have "Ma" as their family name. (For Mohammed?)

[flamefront]

SARS is not just an STD.

See the recent SARS posts on FreeRepublic.

Especially consider this one: SARS virus proves dangerously durable.

In Canada they are worried because Nurse may have spread SARS virus just by commuting on a train after working with SARS patients.

Your friend should take precautions.

[aristeides]

Mr. Hu, Tear Down this Wall .

[Dog Gone]

This is a disaster.

[flamefront]

Blogs are on top of SARS pretty well. I like this one pointed to by that pekingduck article that has a good summary of links too:

www.sarswatch.org/

[flamefront]

"there are press reports that the fatality rate in Canada is 9.5 percent"

[aristeides]

Yes, sarswatch.org is a very good blog.

[Judith Anne]

Yes it is. I just went there, thanks to that link from Flamefront.

[FrogMom]

Yep.

Spanish Flu (1918-1919) infected 20% of the population, killing 2.5% of those.

If you use those figures for infection rate, that's 1.2 billion sick (1,200,000,000!) and, with the SARS mortality rate running 4.5%, that equals 54,000,000 (not 540, sorry - well not really) dead.

A couple of things to keep in mind.
1) We travel farther much faster than in 1918. SARS may do so as well.
2) Infection rates in at least one "hot spot" are running into the 90% (HK hotel).
3) If the medical establishment becomes overwhelmed, the death rate could go MUCH higher.

We REALLY need to quarantine sick people.

[Ma Li]

I'm not entiretly sure. Even though this is a small city, they don't continue the practice of collecting the waste in the evening and taking it out to the farms as they used to. But, I've been out in countryside only 10 minutes drive from the city, and seen the family outhouse used for such purposes. I'd say for certain large cities like Beijing and provincial capitals don't do that anymore. Smaller cities and towns probably some do and some don't. Countryside, definitely.

[Ma Li]

Yes, that's true. A lot of Middle Eastern immigrants who came to China hundreds of years ago took surnames that sounded as close as possible to their actual name. However, at that time the Emperors wouldn't allow foreigners to have surnames that were "special" to the Chinese, so there were limited choices. Some Arabs and Jews who did good service to the Empire and were 2nd or 3rd generation or more from the immigrants were awarded new more Chinese surnames for their efforts.

Ma Li is a transliteration of only my first name. My last name they use F-- for, but that is not the Chinese name I usually go by here. For security reasons, I used that one. They sometimes get real tense about what is a matter of internal security.

[American in Israel]

Blessings to you, be careful.