#SARS update: 2nd Chinese hospital closes; Canada puts profits ahead of common sense
The Axis of Weasel
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sars/story/0,13036,943472,00.html
· UK response is 'proportionate'
· Beijing closes second hospital
· Canada attacks WHO
Staff and agencies
Friday April 25, 2003
The government today defended its refusal to screen travellers
arriving at UK airports, as China sealed off a second Beijing hospital
in an attempt to halt the spread of the potentially deadly Sars virus.
British health minister Hazel Blears today said that the public was
being given the "fullest possible information" on Sars and dismissed
Conservative calls for stricter controls on travellers arriving at
British airports. Screening them in the UK would be "pretty
pointless", she added.
"This is a very serious situation and I genuinely believe that our
response has been proportionate, responsible and effective," she told
the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme.
"In this situation we need to act responsibly, we don't need to stoke
up panic ... The last thing we need is politicians going around giving
health advice and knee-jerk reactions."
Ms Blears insisted the government had a very clear strategy for
dealing with the flu-like disease, which has so far claimed 275 lives
out of over 4,400 cases around the world, most of them in Hong Kong
and mainland China.
"We want to make sure the public and the NHS have got the fullest
possible information. We want to try and minimise travel to the
affected areas. We are finding and reporting any suspected cases. We
are following up their contacts and treating people appropriately in
isolation."
Asked about yesterday's Conservative calls for Sars to be classified
as a "notifiable disease" - which would allow suspected carriers to be
detained in hospital - she said: "The World Health Organisation [WHO]
advice is that screening should take place when people depart from
countries where there are infections.
Shadow health secretary Dr Liam Fox called yesterday for emergency
action to be taken and said Britain's response so far to the outbreak
had been "feeble, complacent and irresponsible". His call was rejected
by medical experts.
The UK has identified six probable Sars cases and no deaths. All six
have now fully recovered.
Beijing closes second hospital
China, the country with the highest number of reported Sars cases,
today closed and sealed a second public hospital in its capital in an
effort to contain the outbreak.
As China announced it would spend 3.5bn yuan (£265m) on nationwide
efforts to battle the disease, Beijing city officials quarantined the
Ditan hospital in northern Beijing, ordering 4,000 people who might
have been exposed to the killer virus to stay at home.
Another 2 billion yuan will be set aside to pay for emergency medical
services for Sars sufferers who cannot afford medical treatment,
vice-premier Wu Yi told the Chinese parliament today. China today
reported five further deaths from the virus and 180 new cases.
Yesterday another Beijing hospital, the People's Hospital of Peking
University, was also closed off, with patients and 2,000 workers
quarantined. Today worried Beijing residents were reportedly
panic-buying stocks of food.
The closure of the Ditan Hospital came less than two weeks after
foreign reporters were allowed to tour the facility, officially touted
then as a showcase of the government's handing of the Sars crisis.
It was not immediately clear how many patients and staff were in the
hospital, which has 500 beds and 643 workers. An official in the
hospital's administrative office said visitors were not being allowed
to enter Ditan, which specialises in infectious diseases.
On April 9, officials shut down the People's Armed Police General
hospital after staff members fell ill with Sars. So far, the Chinese
health ministry has reported 39 Sars deaths and more than 750 cases in
Beijing alone. Nationwide, a total of 115 have reportedly died, out of
2,601 cases.
Two days ago, Beijing said it was invoking emergency powers to
quarantine people exposed to the virus.
In recent days, officials have discouraged people from travelling for
fear they might spread Sars to uninfected areas of the massive
country. However, many people in Beijing - mostly migrant workers and
students - have ignored the government and fled the capital.
Quarantined health workers protest from Taiwan hospital
Taiwan today also quarantined more than 1,100 patients, doctors,
nurses and visitors at a Taipei hospital for two weeks after about 30
suspected Sars cases were discovered there.
Many of those sealed inside the Taipei Municipal Ho Ping Hospital last
night were furious about being trapped with the suspected Sars
patients.
"I am not sick. Why should I be quarantined?" a nurse shouted at
reporters.
Some of the 930 medical staff and 200 patients held at the hospital by
police since yesterday evening pasted protest signs in windows.
The health department said Taiwan's probable Sars cases rose to 49 on
Friday from 41.
Because of its strong business ties with China and Hong Kong, most of
Taiwan's Sars cases are returning travellers, and there had been few
local infections before the Ho Ping hospital cases.
In Hong Kong, where 1,488 Sars cases have been reported, six more
people were reported to have died from the disease, taking the total
death toll there to 115.
Sars fears threaten North Korea talks
Meanwhile, diplomatic attempts to resolve the crisis over North
Korea's alleged weapons programme today suffered an apparent blow from
the Sars outbreak, after the country suspended a joint tourism project
with South Korea, citing fears of the disease.
The move cast doubt on whether high-level reconciliation talks between
the two Koreas, scheduled to start on Sunday in Pyongyang, would take
place as planned.
Hyundai Asan, the South Korean company that runs the tourist project,
said North Korea had faxed a message saying "no outsiders were allowed
to visit Pyongyang and other parts" of the North because of fears of
Sars.
"Because the number of suspected Sars cases is increasing in the
South, we have to suspend our project and contacts with your company
for the time being to prevent a spread of Sars in our republic," it
quoted the fax as saying.
"We are trying to figure out North Korea's real intentions," said a
spokesman at Seoul's unification ministry, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
Seven people are suspected of suffering from severe acute respiratory
syndrome in South Korea, but none has been confirmed as having the
disease. No confirmed cases of Sars have been reported in North Korea.
Canada attempts to limit damage to tourism industry
As the Sars death toll in Canada rose to 16, the Canadian transport
minister, David Collenette, today hit out at WHO guidelines advising
against unnecessary travel to the country.
Mr Collenette, the regional minister for the greater Toronto area,
which has seen 136 of the country's 140 cases, claimed Canada was
being unfairly labelled over Sars as Britain was during the foot and
mouth outbreak. He said there was little risk of contracting Sars in
day-to-day activities.
"The British government had to fight back and say it was safe in
Britain, and that's what we're doing now. There is no reason not to
come to Canada."
First Sars summit held in Malaysia
WHO officials today met senior representatives from south-east Asian
countries in Malaysia to discuss ways of combating the Sars outbreak.
Mark Slater, a WHO medical officer attending the talks, said: "I think
we can see that effective control measures are in place and ... are
beginning to turn the tide.
"I think it is some way to go before we can say it is under control,
but it is getting there."
The discussions are the first in a series of meetings by Asian
governments worst affected by the disease, including China and Hong
Kong.
The government officials at today's talks will report to health
ministers due to meet in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday. Representatives
from Canada are to attend those talks and a summit of leaders and top
officials from other affected countries is scheduled for next Tuesday
in Bangkok, Thailand.
The talks were called on short notice by the 10-member Association of
South-East Asian Nations.
"These discussions will help us formulate effective trans-border
measures to contain Sars," said Mohamad Taha Arif, Malaysia's director
general of health.
He praised China for becoming "very much more transparent" about Sars
in the past few days and said it was making "significant strides
forward" in combating the disease.
As well as Hong Kong and China, Sars deaths have also been reported in
Singapore, Canada, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Officials say the outbreak has already cost countries in the region
hundreds of millions of dollars, as tourism and business travel has
plummeted and consumer spending has dropped.
Test results awaited for seventh possible UK case
A patient has been tested at a Plymouth hospital for what would be the
seventh British case.
Dr David Dance, consultant microbiologist at Plymouth Hospitals NHS
Trust, said the patient, who had recently travelled to the Far East,
was admitted to Derriford hospital last weekend. The patient was kept
under observation before being discharged.
Laboratory samples have been sent for testing but the results are not
expected for several days. A small number of staff who treated the
patient are being monitored as a precaution.
UK government urged to give clear guidelines to schools
A medical academic today urged the government to clear up confusion
and student disruption caused by British schools' differing policies
on Sars.
Ian Wong, director of the Centre for Paediatric Pharmacy Research at
the University of London, said officials should urgently develop a
common policy for schools.
In a letter published in the British Medical Journal, Mr Wong said
Chinese pupils' schooling was being disrupted because schools were
imposing quarantines.
Several schools, including Eton, have refused to allow students coming
back from affected countries to return to school for 10 days after
their arrival in the UK. Cheshire county council today ruled that 21
students and three teachers on a school trip in Beijing would not be
allowed back to school within 10 days of their return to Britain.
************
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