Fear spreads in China over mystery lung virus

The Times ^ | February 12, 2003 | Oliver August

[MadIvan]

A girl wearing a surgical mask at a railway station in southern China, where panic has spread over an unidentified virus

CHEMISTS and stores have been swamped by people in parts of southern China fearing a mystery lung virus. Some people were wearing surgical mask in the streets, despite doctors insisting that rumours were unnecessarily fanning public fears.

About 300 people were in hospital with pneumonia caused by the virus, one-third of them doctors, nurses and other health workers, an official of the provincial Disease Prevention and Control Centre said.

But doctors said that so far only five people had died and not the hundreds suggested by residents in Guangdong Province near Hong Kong.

“The disease is under control. It’s not as serious as the rumours said. The priority now is to figure out what caused it,” a doctor at the No 1 Hospital of the Guangzhou Medical School said. “We did not realise it was a serious epidemic, so we did not take it seriously at the beginning.”

Shoppers cleared stores of antibiotics and queued to pay inflated prices for vinegar, which many Chinese use as a disinfectant.

The panic also affected regional stock exchanges, with shares of drug companies rising, outdone only by a few vinegar-makers.

The identity of what is believed to be a virus linked to pneumonia is still not known. Leading Communist Party officials in Guangdong Province yesterday ordered an emergency team of experts to start a belated fight against the illness, which was first detected two months ago.

Governments in Hong Kong and Macau have also pleaded with residents not to panic, a likely response as the region has repeatedly been struck by deadly viruses in recent years.

Southern China is a significant source of new strains of influenza and other viruses that are often traced to the poultry industry. Bird flu in Hong Kong in 1997 killed six people and prompted the slaughter of all of its 1.4 million chickens.

Chemists and traditional Chinese herbal medicine stores reported dwindling stocks in Hong Kong as the rumours from Guangdong quickly spread. But Yeoh Engkiong, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Health and Welfare, said that there was no evidence that it was affecting the city. Neither pneumonia nor influenza cases had increased, he said. Nonetheless, television showed residents queuing for vinegar.

The Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Corporation said that it had sent hundreds of boxes of anti-flu medication to pharmacies and hospitals since Saturday and was working around the clock to meet demand.

Anti-inflammatory medicines were also selling briskly. “They’re almost completely out of stock,” the Xinhua state news agency said. The agency discounted reports that the virus was related to anthrax.

[MadIvan]

Vaguely reminds me of "Captain Trips" from Stephen King's "The Stand".

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[Bahbah]

Hi, Ivan. There was a thread earlier today about a fellow in the US who caught a strange kind of pneumonia from bacteria in his hot tub. Hmmm.

[Blackyce]

5 out 300 is still pretty bad.

[bulldogs]

The Stand could happen. Are they telling Brits' to get duct tape and plastic yet?

[Route66]

'Vaguely reminds me of "Captain Trips" from Stephen King's "The Stand".'
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Yes-- reminds me of That too.

[The poor little girl in the photo might as well take that mask off if she is not going to wear it over her nose.]

[dogbrain]

Your Lung Gone virus?

[tet68]

I won't stand next to anyone coughing in the check out line.
The Stand really brought it home.

[AdA$tra]

Chinese English language newspaper headline: RUNG VILUS LUNS LAMPANT.

[SwinneySwitch]

You velly Bad!

[SwinneySwitch]

You velly Bad!

[Centurion2000]

interesting .... and knowing international travel .... how long until it gets to the US ?

[DannyTN]

...only five people had died and not the hundreds suggested... The disease is under control...We did not realise it was a serious epidemic...

Which is it? "Under control" or "serious epidemic"?

It's just a little .. cough ... aaggaggaggejejgeaseigalglalajljasrrrrsrasralraach!!!!

It's a white guy in a white van.

[calljack]

Since they discovered it 2 months ago and did basically nothing, it is already here. It will turn up soon.

[Domestic Church]

Norwalk virus?

[4Freedom]

Ah Tink Yu Fa Ni!

[spectre]

Ping!

sw

[Democratic_Machiavelli]

ping

[vikingchick]

OMG. Maybe that's what he had.