Posted on 05/09/2003 1:54:44 AM PDT by FreepForever
If SARS ever becomes endemic in the USA I doubt that many managers will react well to people staying home from a mild fever or a cough.
May 10 2003
Taipei
The World Health Organisation has advised against travel to two more Chinese provinces and the capital of Taiwan, as its experts headed to China's hinterland where they fear SARS is beginning to spread rapidly.
The WHO extended its SARS-related travel warning to the provinces of Tianjin and Inner Mongolia, as well as Taipei. The United Nations health agency had already advised against travel to Beijing, the provinces of Guangdong and Shanxi and Hong Kong.
WHO experts say China is the key to containing the global spread of the virus. Severe acute respiratory syndrome has now killed more than 500 people and infected more than 7300.
The WHO has turned its attention to the country's poorer provinces, dispatching four experts to Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing. The team, which arrived in the city of Baoding on Thursday, will inspect hospitals, talk to medical workers and visit rural areas.
In recent days an estimated million migrant workers have returned to Hebei from Beijing and other SARS-stricken areas. Eight officials in the Hebei city of Zhouzhou were fired for allowing a SARS-infected woman returning from Beijing to infect her family, state media reported.
Compounding concerns about the outbreak, Cambodian officials reported the death of seven people from an unidentified form of pneumonia in two impoverished regions near the country's border with Vietnam. WHO and Cambodian officials said there was no evidence yet the deaths were linked to SARS.
But the worst news came from Taipei, where officials reported at least six new cases of SARS that could not be traced to foreign travel or to other SARS victims. Such instances of so-called community infection have been a harbinger of much larger outbreaks to come in other countries that have been affected.
Authorities also were investigating the death of a 63-year-old man in the southern city of Kaohsiung, which represented the first SARS case outside Taipei.
Taiwan now has 132 probable cases and 14 deaths. The island trails only mainland China and Hong Kong with its case load. "It is a grim situation at the moment," said Dr Lee Ming-liang, who was recently appointed to head a SARS taskforce. "Our most important task at this point is to track down the sources of community infections."
The increases have been especially bitter for Taiwan, which has imposed some of the most draconian measures of any country in its efforts to control the disease.
Authorities require all passengers on trains and buses to wear masks, and visitors to buildings with more than 100 workers must have their temperatures taken before entering. The country also is imposing mandatory 10-day quarantines on all visitors from China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Toronto - a step that is devastating its economy.
Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian told his cabinet on Thursday night that he would order the army and police to take a more active role in enforcing the quarantine and pursuing violators.
The initial assessment of a WHO epidemiological team - the first representatives of that agency to visit the island in 30 years - did not provide any comfort, criticising the country's initial efforts at containment.
"There is some concern that they are not taking proper infection control measures and that, when a case is identified, they do not have the procedures to make sure that person is isolated," said Maria Cheng, a WHO spokeswoman.
Not only managers, but workers. I have found it very frustrating when sick people come to work and then spread their sickness among their fellow workers.
A lot of people nowadays refuse to stay home when they are sick. They either don't want to lose the money or they don't have any "sick days" left. In the meantime, they get everybody else sick and the cycle goes round and round.
I'll take a guess. At some point, after all sick days are used up, the employee will be placed on a 'no pay' authorized absence. The company is not penalized by having to pay excessive sick days and the employee is not penalized for excessive absentism.
With 1,600 cases and 200 deaths, Hong Kong is the second hardest hit area in the world, just next to China. We peaked at 80 new cases/day. Today, the new case/day hit a new low, just 6. New cases per day had been single digit for the past 5 days. We went through a lot of hardship but we did come through the crises. Yes, many families are ruined, many children are orphaned, thousand of jobs are losts, hundreds of businesses went bankrupt. But we survived.
After all, there is not one death case in Ameica, yet. So, don't cry, Betty. Face it. Does worry and fear help to fight to disease? If you want detail of how we deal with it, just ask. I will summarize our experience here. I am not saying Hong Kong is a successful model. The casualty is just second to China, but we did survive. And, that matters a lot to me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.