Chris, what's up with the "Asian flu"?

RonOnGuitar · Joined: 08 Jan 2003 Posts: 1916

Been hearing more and more about it in recent days. So what's the story from the HK area on this?

take care!

==ron==

Alert issued as flu fears grow

Concern is growing about the illness across east Asia

The World Health Organisation has taken the rare step of issuing an emergency travel advisory amid fears that a mystery virus which has infected scores of people in Asia may be spreading.

The WHO has so far not advised travellers to avoid any particular destination, but has warned them to watch out for symptoms, including a high fever, difficulty in breathing, and coughing.

In the latest development, a doctor from Singapore was taken off an airplane on Saturday and quarantined in a Frankfurt hospital, German health authorities say.

Two people travelling with him on the flight from New York to Singapore were also put in quarantine.

The WHO says it has received reports of more than 150 suspected new cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) during the past week.

AFP news agency reports that 40 people have been infected in Vietnam.

First victim

It is thought the Hanoi outbreak started last month after an American businessman travelling from Shanghai infected hospital workers; he died in Hong Kong.

In Canada, a mother and child have reportedly died from the flu, while officials in Singapore report 16 cases.

The flu is thought to be highly contagious

In Hong Kong, 47 medical workers are thought to have the virus; the Taipei authorities have reported three cases.

No figures are available yet from China where it is thought there are many cases.

"This syndrome, SARS, is now a worldwide health threat," said WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland.

"The world needs to work together to find its cause, cure the sick and stop its spread."

The man quarantined in Frankfurt had apparently already exhibited symptoms of the mystery pneumonia while in New York.

'Sent home'

While he and two others were taken to hospital, other passengers who got off in Frankfurt were sent home and told to stay there.

People continuing their journey to Singapore will be met by health officials there.

Singapore and Taiwan have warned their citizens against travelling to the worst affected places - Hong Kong, China and Vietnam.

The Thai authorities have also imposed strict procedures to try to guard against the illness, instructing airlines to report immediately if any passengers display symptoms.

It is possible the outbreak is linked to a spate of "atypical pneumonia" cases in the southern Guangdong province of China in February, which killed five people and infected hundreds more.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world...853185.stm

Netjams · Joined: 27 Dec 2001 Posts: 2308

I hope Chris is ok :warrior

NutCity.com

RonOnGuitar · Joined: 08 Jan 2003 Posts: 1916

I'm sure that Chris and her precious banana :banana

are doing just fine! But I figured "our gal in Hong Kong" would probably have more of a geographic skinny to report on this.

Of course, with modern travel being what it is I hope this isn't a "preview of coming attractions". :bigeyes

==ron==

bbchris

Oh! I didn't know it was such big news over there! Yeah a few people have died of it. The pneumonia. Isn't it amazing how bad news sells newspapers?

However the HK Government could have been more on the ball. They came out with rubbish like it wouldn't happen in HK as we have world class hospitals & medical services blah blah But of course pneumonia can happen anywhere, anytime!

From the scmp.com:

===========================================

An international team of experts from the World Health Organisation is expected in Beijing this weekend to try to determine if there is a link between the outbreaks of a severe form of pneumonia in Guangdong, Hanoi and Hong Kong.

They will help with the laboratory work on samples taken from hundreds of patients infected in the Guangdong scare, and analyse the data collected so far, said WHO consultant in Tokyo, Masato Tashiro of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.

"Hopefully we can compare the results with the results obtained in Hong Kong and Hanoi," said Dr Tashiro.

His laboratory, one of four WHO collaborating laboratories, is trying to find the cause of the outbreak of pneumonia in Hanoi, but he said this was proving to be difficult.

Guangdong officials reported in mid-February that 305 people fell victim to atypical pneumonia and at least five died in an outbreak that officials say is now over.

An American-Chinese businessman died on Wednesday at Princess Margaret Hospital after being flown in a week earlier from Hanoi for treatment. The 49-year-old man was identified as the first patient in the outbreak of atypical pneumonia that struck 26 doctors and nurses at the private Vietnamese hospital where he was first admitted on February 26.

In Hong Kong, an outbreak of atypical pneumonia that was officially recognised on Monday has so far affected 43 hospital nurses, of whom 29 have contracted the disease.

WHO collaborating centres in Tokyo and Atlanta are helping Hong Kong microbiologists isolate the organism involved in the outbreaks. Keiji Fukuda, from the United States' Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, is in Hong Kong as a member of the local team of experts investigating the outbreak.

Brian Doberstyn, director of disease prevention and control at the WHO Western Pacific regional headquarters in Manila, said: "An outbreak of respiratory disease that predominantly affects health workers is unusual; we are unaware of any previous episodes like this in this region."

He said the danger of pneumonia to the public depends on the organism causing it, how easily it spreads, the characteristics of the disease it causes and the general health of the person infected.

Hong Kong's Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong said the situation was under control and called for calm.

"People say that you come to Hong Kong, you get pneumonia and you go back to your respective country . . . I just want to explain that in any country and any area, there are always cases of pneumonia. You see it whether it is in Hong Kong, you see it in the United States, Britain, the Philippines, Singapore, China."

Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa visited Prince of Wales Hospital yesterday but was advised not to go to the isolation ward where most of the 34 sick employees were.

Shanghai denied any cases of pneumonia of the type that caused the death of the American-Chinese businessman who passed through the city before succumbing to the disease in Hong Kong.

A spokesman for the Shanghai Health Bureau said authorities were aware of the case and were on the alert for any outbreak.

He said the city had taken steps since the outbreak of atypical pneumonia in Guangdong which killed five and left hundreds of others sick in mid-February.

Officials from the Ministry of Health and the State Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in Beijing declined to comment on the outbreaks

=========================================

MIKE BURN

We have some sort of serious alarm over here....

....in MY city....

Early Saturday, a doctor from Singapore on a flight home from New York was taken off a plane during a stopover in Frankfurt, Germany, after showing signs of SARS, German officials said.

The doctor, who was in New York for a conference, had recently treated two patients in Singapore with SARS, the New York City Department of Health said. He attended the conference for only "a few hours," the department said, and had "minimal contact with others" during his two days in the city.

Little benefit from medication

Neither antibiotics nor antiviral medications -- the standard weapons against pneumonia -- have proven effective, WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said.

The average incubation period between exposure to a sick person and onset of symptoms is about three days, the WHO spokesman said. The CDC put the incubation period at between two and seven days.

The cause of the disease remains a mystery. "We've run almost every flu test we can run and we don't get consistent results," Thompson said. "We get hints here and there, but right now I couldn't tell you if it's a virus or a bacteria. I just don't have any idea."

Also German officials don't rule out some sort of mutated

biological weapon/terrorist act yet...

bbchris

Oh My! Now there's a GLOBAL ALERT!

Global alert over mystery virus

Travellers are taking precautions after a WHO travel alert

Global health authorities are struggling to contain a mystery virus which has affected more than 150 people in a number of countries, killing at least nine.

On Sunday, the World Health Organisation said two deaths had been reported in Canada - thought to be a mother and child returning from Hong Kong.

Health officials have located seven people infected by the family but are still searching frantically for anyone else who may have come into contact with them.

Other cases have been reported in Vietnam - where a nurse died on Sunday and where at least 40 other medical workers are infected - and Germany, and there are unconfirmed reports of stricken patients in Indonesia and the Philippines.

"Until we can get a grip on it, I don't see how it will slow down," WHO spokesman Dick Thompson told the Associated Press news agency.

"People are not responding to antibiotics or antivirals. It's a highly contagious disease and it's moving around by jet. It's bad."

Travel advisory

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) causes victims to suffer from symptoms such as coughing, high fever and shortness of breath, and has an incubation period of two to seven days.

The flu is thought to be highly contagious

The outbreak is thought to have begun in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi last month after a US businessman travelling from Shanghai infected hospital workers in Hong Kong before himself succumbing to the disease.

On Saturday, the WHO took the rare step of issuing an emergency travel advisory amid fears that a mystery virus may be spreading.

The WHO has so far not advised travellers to avoid any particular destination, but has warned them to watch out for symptoms, including a high fever, difficulty in breathing, and coughing.

WHO experts are also working on isolating the cause of the disease, however the organisation's executive director of communicable diseases, David Heyman, told the BBC said that work was hampered by ignorance about the illness.

"We don't know what to use with this disease because we don't know what's causing it," he said.

"There is no specific antibiotic or anti-viral drug that we can yet recommend."

Also on Saturday a doctor from Singapore was taken off an airplane on Saturday and quarantined in a Frankfurt hospital, German health authorities said.

Two people travelling with him on the flight from New York to Singapore were also put in quarantine.

China link

Twenty cases have now been reported in Singapore, while in Hong Kong 49 people - including 42 medical workers - are thought to have the virus and Taipei authorities have reported three cases, Reuters news agency reported.

No figures are available yet from China. The WHO said the flu-like symptoms of the virus were similar to those of a sickness in the southern province of Guangdong last month which infected 305 people, killing five of them.

Singapore and Taiwan have warned their citizens against travelling to the worst affected places - Hong Kong, China and Vietnam.

The Thai authorities have also imposed strict procedures to try to guard against the illness, instructing airlines to report immediately if any passengers display symptoms.

droolymutt

There's a news video clip here...

RonOnGuitar · Joined: 08 Jan 2003 Posts: 1916

Thanks for the info, Chris!

This sounded like it can be quite problematic since it apparently doesn't respond to the known usual treatments.

It's always helpful to get local input on things in the news. I had seen the story that Mike has passed along here and heard that there may be a few deaths related to this in Canada(Toronto).

Hopefully quarantines will either stop this or at least keep it down to managable numbers for the the healthcare/medical people to handle!

==ron==

debbie mannas · Joined: 30 Sep 2002 Posts: 1352

I went to China couple of sundays ago. Am going again this coming sunday...

Chris, have you stopped going to China temporarily?

BTW, how are ya?????

Cheers

bbchris

DEBBIE!!!!!!! I've been meaning to call you and ask how you are! Have definitely been thinking of you!

And no I haven't stopped going to China! I do work there too! hahaha I bought some Morcheeba tickets whilst I was there last Monday but I'm not going myself...... I'm going again one day this week or next Monday. Got a couple of fun projects plus getting rid of last week's headache that affected my business.....

RON! Thank you for your healthy thoughts.

Drooly! Will watch that tonight.

debbie mannas · Joined: 30 Sep 2002 Posts: 1352

Oh I'm fine. Had a bad throat and cough starting up last week, but I took some mega doses of Vit. C and upped my multis, lots n lots of water and fruit and veggies and protein and I seem to have shaken it. Good thing me mom's down, I have some decent home cooked food for once.

Lots of things happening...

Cheers

Debbie

LarreeMP3 · Joined: 12 Apr 2002 Posts: 1935

Take care of yourselves! Don't be gettin' sick!

bbchris · Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2003 3:15 pm Post subject: Re: Hi Chris! Hi Debbie!

Thanks Larree! I'll speak to you tomorrow Debbie! Life is very exciting again!!!!

debbie mannas · Joined: 30 Sep 2002 Posts: 1352

Thanks for concern, you too!

Off to the gym now - gotta start my health freakishness again.

Chris! hokay, call me?

Cheers!

bbchris · Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2003 8:06 am Post subject: Now I'm nervous.......

Great speaking to you earlier today Debbie.

Just found out that a friend of mine, his brother is one of the doctors at the Prince of Wales who's got it. Fingers crossed.