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Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) - multi-country outbreak - Update 24 WHO Guangdong China team to issue its report 8 April 2003 Disease Outbreak Reported The WHO expert team in Guangdong Province, China will be issuing its official interim report and recommendations on the local SARS situation early tomorrow. The four-person team, headed by John MacKenzie of Australia, has been in Guangdong since Thursday 3 April. The team was charged to assess the local situation and to support the strengthening of surveillance, clinical management, infection control, and laboratory evaluation of SARS cases. The team has visited Foshan City, where the...

'Super-spreaders' of Sars are elderly: WHO   The make up of extremely infectious patients of the SARS virus, known as "super-spreaders," is becoming clearer, with many appearing to be the elderly or those already suffering medical ailments, a World Health Organization official said Monday. "Super spreaders" of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome are a handful of carriers who have infected 10 or more people, often family members and medical workers treating them. They are seen as a key link in the transmission of the respiratory disease. "We are getting more and more information on 'super spreaders' and it appears that...

U.S. Warns Citizens in Vietnam Because of SARS Sun March 23, 2003 09:55 AM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The State Department on Sunday urged U.S. citizens to consider leaving Vietnam because of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a deadly form of pneumonia, and said it was offering free flights out to family members of U.S. diplomats in the country. The move follows the U.S. government's decision on Friday to suspend official travel to Vietnam and to advise U.S. citizens to put off non-emergency travel there because of the disease and the reduced availability of medical treatment. "The Department of State...

The Sars outbreak The day the world caught a cold It began in a province of China, spread through Hong Kong to reach three continents and now threatens to plunge the world economy into freefall Gaby Hinsliff and Mark Townsend in London, Ed Helmore in Toronto and John Aglionby in Jakarta Sunday April 27, 2003 The Observer Nursing his pint of Guinness in a bar in downtown Toronto, Mike Smith was sanguine yesterday about his chances of surviving the deadly illness sweeping his native city. 'People have over-reacted,' scoffed the media analyst. 'You have a better chance of being hit...

HUNDE, China — An hour south of Guangzhou, the Dongyuan animal market presents endless opportunities for an emerging germ. In hundreds of cramped stalls that stink of blood and guts, wholesale food vendors tend to veritable zoos that will grace Guangdong Province's tables: snakes, chickens, cats, turtles, badgers, frogs. And, in summer, sometimes rats, too.They are all stacked in cages one on top of another — which in turn serve as seats, card tables and dining quarters for the poor migrants who work there. On a recent morning, near stall 17, there were beheaded snakes, disemboweled frogs and feathers...

Anatomy of the deadly China syndrome Virus Sars is first of many epidemics to come Ian Sample, science correspondent Friday April 25, 2003 The Guardian We're unsure where it came from, have no treatment for it and no idea when or where it will spread next. The virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome is shrouded in unknowns. But two things are agreed upon: it's lethal, and it's not going to go away. What's more, we can look forward to far more new and extremely dangerous viruses in the next few years. In mid-February, a retired Chinese doctor, Liu Jianlun,...

SARS has tested the modern world's ability to corral a contagious, deadly disease. Everybody fighting the outbreak — from the World Health Organization to Toronto public health authorities to Scarborough Grace Hospital — claims they have done the best possible job. Despite valiant efforts, 170 people have died around the world, 13 in Toronto alone. Well over 3,400 are suspected or probably infected, 247 in Ontario. Many thousands had to be placed in quarantine, 7,000 in Toronto. The disease is growing, not shrinking. A detailed analysis shows mistakes were made along the way. Poor detective work was done. Information was...

Chinese Government Stonewalls WHO on SARS Virus, But Identity of Guangdong Medical Professor Revealed This morning there was news from Jeff Gittings, who is a reporter from Guardian Unlimited . The reporter had just returned from China and his report is shocking. The Chinese are still stonewalling World Health Organization officials who had requested visits to sites where the SARS virus had originated. Guangdong Province is apparently under a complete information lock-down. Quoting briefly from the Guardian report: * * * On March 28, after a week in Beijing, the WHO team finally thought it had secured permission to visit...