Posted on 05/15/2003 10:10:55 AM PDT by Happy2BMe
Chinese security guards patrol a quarantined area of Beijing. China said it may execute SARS (news - web sites) patients who violate quarantine in a bid to contain the epidemic which has resulted in 271 deaths.(AFP/File/Goh Chai Hin)
Everyone knows a good communist doesn't contract or spread SARS!
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1 hour, 39 minutes ago
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HONG KONG (AFP) - China said it may execute SARS (news - web sites) patients who violate quarantine in the most radical step so far to contain the epidemic as Taiwan struggled to prevent new outbreaks among health workers.
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Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) claimed four more lives in China, seven in Hong Kong and five in Taiwan, health officials said Thursday.
China, the epicentre of the outbreak with 5,163 cases and 271 deaths, reported 52 new infections -- its lowest number since the government admitted covering up the epidemic on April 20.
In a bid to curtail the spread of the disease China's judiciary announced that under the country's infectious diseases law SARS patients who violate quarantine restrictions could face execution or life imprisonment.
"Intentionally spreading sudden contagious disease pathogens that endangers public security or leads to serious personal injury, death or heavy loss of public or private property will be punishable by 10 years to life imprisonment or the death penalty," Xinhua news agency said.
The World Health Organization (news - web sites) (WHO) immediately expressed concern that the draconian law could deter possible SARS patients from going to hospital.
"There is a fine balance with this kind of disease where you need to isolate and quarantine patients, but if you are too heavy handed it may end up only stigmatizing people," WHO spokeswoman Mangai Balasegaram said.
China, believed to be the source of the SARS virus, also insisted Thursday that the situation was improving and there was little sign of widespread infections in its heavily-populated and poorly-equipped countryside.
The numbers of new infections in China has also been steadily falling, although some experts have raised doubts about the country's reporting methods.
"In general, we have not found a large scale occurrence of SARS cases in rural areas except for a few found in very limited areas," said a joint statement from the ministries of agriculture, health and finance.
As the number of cases appeared to subside in China, officials in Taiwan were under pressure to contain the spread of the virus among health workers as another hospital shut its emergency and outpatient services.
Officials at the private Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Kaohsiung quarantined 600 in-patients after 15 staff became infected.
The private Mackay Memorial Hospital also reported seven SARS cases involving medical workers who had treated a noodle stand proprietor who was later confirmed to have died of SARS. Three other hospitals have closed or quarantined patients and staff because of SARS.
Taiwan Thursday reported 26 more infections and five deaths, including that of a doctor, taking the death toll on the island to 34 from 264 cases.
"Infections at hospitals in the past two days are getting serious ... more than what we had expected. Now our focus is fighting against hospital infections," said Li Ming-liang, commander of the national anti-SARS task force.
In Singapore, more patients and staff from the Institute of Mental Health have been quarantined because of SARS fears, the health ministry said.
And in the Philippines two new SARS cases were reported, taking the country's total caseload to 12. However, both patients have recovered. The Philippines has reported two deaths from the virus.
Five new cases emerged Thursday in Hong Kong and seven deaths were reported. The territory's death toll stands at 234 from 1,703 infections.
Other deaths have occurred in Vietnam (5), Malaysia (2), Singapore (28) and Thailand (2). More than 600 people have succumbed to the disease worldwide.
Canada, the only country outside of Asia to record SARS deaths, was celebrating Thursday after the WHO declared the virus was no longer spreading in the country and lifted the last remaining travel advisories.
The WHO said it considered the chain of transmission was broken in Toronto, Canada's worst affected area, as no new locally-contracted case had been diagnosed there for more than 20 days.
The country recorded 24 deaths after a 78-year-old elderly woman first brought the virus to Toronto in March from Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, the financial fallout from SARS continued around Asia, with figures from the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics showing industrial output growth slowed in April compared with the first three months of the year.
Global credit rating agency Fitch halved its forecast for Singapore's 2003 economic growth and in the Philippines, an airline industry official admitted the jet-setting virus is inflicting the worst crisis the global aviation industry has known.
In a manner that Pastor Fred Phelps would heartily approve of, no doubt :o)
Our doctor says you have SARS.
What about that PLA lieutenant general that is said to have had SARS in Peking?
The term "Wack his pee-pee!" originated in Peking didn't it?
The numbers of new infections in China has also been steadily falling, although some experts have raised doubts about the country's reporting methods.
If you track the numbers reported by WHO you will see that they report deaths, recoveries, and total cases which will tell you the total number of "Active Cases" And, the total number of active cases has been dropping for the last several days. I'm wondering how long before all the Jayson Blairs in the world are going to discover this fact?
| Date | Active Cases |
| May12 | 3700 |
| May 13 | 3677 |
| May 14 | 3644 |
| May 15 | 3607 |
| May 16 | 3538 |
Is this a seasonal disease (e.g., favors spread during cold weather)?
Several more cases have been reported in the U.S. in the past week.
I don't really know that they are dropping, I'm like Will Rogers, all I know is what I read on the internet. The reported numbers could shoot right back up tomorrow.
| Date | Active Cases |
| May12 | 3700 |
| May 13 | 3677 |
| May 14 | 3644 |
| May 15 | 3607 |
| May 16 | 3538 |
| May17 | 3464 |
Latest numbers are in for today, still dropping!
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