Outbreak of SARS causes declaration of heath emergency in Canada

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[/font][font=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]March 27, 2003

TORONTO - The Ontario government is declaring a health emergency to deal with an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, the deadly pneumonia that's affecting an increasing number of people in the province.

Ontario's chief medical officer of health says there are now 27 suspected cases of SARS.

On Wednesday, Toronto police taped off a hospital that has been at the centre of the outbreak of the mysterious illness. Officials say the security was needed to allow an out-of-province infectious disease expert to arrive by helicopter.

INDEPTH: <http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/background/sars.html>SARS: the mystery illness

CANADIAN CASES Ontario:
27 probable and 5 suspect cases. To date, all cases have occurred in close family contacts of travellers returning from Hong Kong or in health care workers who have cared for these cases.

British Columbia:
1 person has been hospitalized with SARS after returning from travel in southeast Asia. <http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/protection/warnings/2003/2003_11update10.htm>
Source: Health Canada
Two of the three Canadians who have died of SARS were treated at Scarborough Grace Hospital.

The outbreak of SARS in Ontario is moving faster than health officials ever imagined.

Toronto's medical officer of health, Dr. Sheela Basrur, called the outbreak, "an incident of unprecedented scope and magnitude." She says the spread is so swift, health officials are taking unusual measures.

It may mean forcing thousands of people into quarantine.

Anyone who was at Scarborough Grace Hospital in the past 10 days is to be isolated at home.

That decision was made after several health care workers at the hospital showed signs of the illness.

Basrur says action needs to be taken to stop the spread immediately. "It's like a brush fire that's throwing off sparks, if you want to
control it you have to put a ring around the fire, so it does not spread further."

To help stop the spread, the provincial government has stepped in. "Premier Ernie Eves has declared that severe acute respiratory syndrome is a provincial emergency," said James Young, Ontario's commissioner of public safety.

Most of the SARS cases are in the Toronto area. There is another suspected case in British Columbia. And now a man in Ottawa is suspected of having the illness.

The Saskatoon Health District is also reporting "a possible case" of SARS. A patient at Royal University Hospital has been isolated and staff are wearing protective masks.

In the House of Commons, Canadian Alliance health critic Rob Merrifield wanted to know "under what circumstances would the health minister apply the federal quarantines act?"

Under that act, people coming to Canada who have symptoms of SARS can be detained. Health Minister Anne McLellan says there's no need for that - at least not yet.

"We're working very effectively with local authorities, at this time we don't see a need to invoke the quarantine act," she said.

Yet the number of quarantines in Toronto is increasing. Already, at least 40 households are under quarantine and that number will grow.

An intensive care unit at one of the busiest hospitals in the city has been closed, the patients inside are in isolation.

But Dr. Young, is urging people to remain calm. Unless individuals had close contact with a known case, they need not worry. "The risk for infection is very low and we don't want unnecessary panic in the community, as well," he said.

Written by CBC News Online staff

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/03/26/quarantine030326[/quote][/font]

Lets hope and pray we find a way to stop this soon huh?

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[/font][font=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]March 21, 2003

Wars have never reached the level of mass killing that diseases have achieved, and the new viral pneumonia spreading throughout the world from its incubator in China may yet do more damage than the terrorists and the war against terror. But even if it doesn't, we've learned some things about the Chinese government that should give our political and business leaders plenty of food for thought.

It is widely reported that the Chinese kept the story secret from the rest of the world. Why? Most seem to think it's because it's their nature to suppress bad news (remember that they still deny there was a massacre in Tiananmen Square). No matter that an epidemic in China could produce millions of deaths at home, and even more overseas. It was more important to keep the information from their own people.

I'm not so sure that the authorities were keeping the information from the people. It may well be that the people were keeping it from the authorities.

There is an unusual relationship between the government of the People's Republic of China and its people, one which we do not begin to fully comprehend. We don't comprehend it because we don't know very much about recent Chinese history, and even those few of us who study it fail to grant it the great importance it has in contemporary China.

Not very long ago ÷ within the past five years, let's say ÷ an American businessman of my acquaintance, a leading figure in the health-care field, was approached by an authoritative official of the Chinese government with a truly fabulous offer. How would the American like to set up a nationwide network of clinics, under his own name and with clear American identification? He would provide the medicine, the staff, the doctors, the technology. The Chinese would provide the money, the land, the labor force to build the clinics, and guarantee a substantial profit for at least a decade.

The American was impressed; who wouldn't be? And of course he was curious. Why were they being so generous?

The answer helps understand why it took so long for the Chinese to fess up to the existence of the new Viral pneumonia. The Chinese official put it this way: "we are having a terrible time getting people to see doctors, even for routine physical checkups. And this is because of an event that took place back in the late 1940s, following Mao's revolution. At that time, the government promised to eradicate venereal disease in China. And it did. Everyone was forced to undergo an examination by a certified doctor. And anyone with venereal disease was executed. Ever since, most Chinese stayed far away from medical doctors."

So the current regime, which would like to improve the health of the population, thought that it might be possible to get the people to a doctor if that doctor were clearly separate from the government. Indeed, as far removed from Chinese officialdom as one could imagine: an American doctor in an American clinic that guaranteed utter privacy.

That's quite a confession by the Chinese government, isn't it? In essence, the Chinese official told the American that there was no way a Chinese citizen would see a doctor, because of fear that the doctor would kill him. A sick Chinese might fear death from the disease, but that was only a possibility, not a certainty, whereas going to the doctor was certain death.

Given this background, the most surprising part of the story about the new pneumonia is that the government found out within a few months. It would be interesting to know just how they discovered it (my own guess is that someone under their control ÷ maybe a prisoner? ÷ contracted the disease, and could not escape medical treatment), and it's most encouraging that they informed other governments.

There are many things in this world that we never imagined, and you can find most of them in China. Just remember, if it's a one-in-a-million possibility, there are more than thousand of them in the People's Republic.

÷ Michael Ledeen, an NRO contributing editor, is most recently the author of The War Against the Terror Masters. Ledeen, Resident Scholar in the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute, can be reached through <http://www.benadorassociates.com/>Benador Associates.


Maybe an idea to assist you in your battles against the gunk in your lungs, Larry?

[/font][font=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]<B>Strange "pneumonia" in Hong Kong</B>[/font][font=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]

About 145 people in Hong Kong have fallen ill to this strange pneumonia.

This includes :

(1) 70 staff from the Prince of Wales Hospital, (this Hospital is in Hong Kong, not in England!)

(2) 17 medical students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong who learn practical experience in the Prince of Wales Hospital.

They fell ill because of contact with a person with this illness. Infection is not through air, but through contact with patient -- the small droplets breathed out by the sick will infect all who breathe in those droplets.

Researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong succeeded in getting a photograph of this virus using electron-microscope.

It is a common virus affecting the respiratory system, and usually affects ONLY small children -- adults have antibodies from their past illnesses at youth. But this MUTATED variant affects adults, and this causes surprise to the medical community.

This illness has killed 3 persons (confirmed) so far, another 2 deaths are waiting autopsy (unconfirmed, if confirmed, the number of deaths will be 5).

Symptoms of this strange "mutated" virus :

(1) high temperature, high fever.
(2) pain in muscle.
(3) have occasional feelings of cold.

X-ray of the chest will confirm this "mutated pneumonia".


Mutated virus is not new in Hong Kong -- bird flu being the most prominent. Bird flu used to affect only chicken or birds, and would not affect human. But this type of mutated bird flu will kill human. There have been several outbreaks of this bird flu in Hong Kong, and the Government quickly killed all the chickens in chicken farms. Whether this is appropriate move or not -- to kill all chicken to prevent infecting human -- you judge it yourself.

Wu Siu Yan

P.S. I live in Hong Kong, and I am not new to biological warfare -- the secret agents from the Secret Alliance have been using various germs to harm me for many years. But up to today, GOD have been merciful to me that I suffer no "deadly" harm, though I lose many of my teeth, and have high fever several times (they injected germs into my gum after making me asleep with electromagnetic means, and have my doors opened by trained "monkeys" { &lt;-- my belief, I have so far been unable to catch one, but monkeys roaming in the city center have been filmed by TV crew and reported as news. There are wild monkeys in some mountains in Hong Kong, but I don't think they can get into the city on their own, the "concrete jungle" and distance is too prohibitive for them.} Monkeys need only an opening of several inches to gain access). They have implanted numerous micro-chips into my brain, that they can control my metabolism rate, muscles, ... or TO SWITCH ME OFF (kill me through remote ra!
dio.)

I have written a webpage on how I combat "bacteria warfare" in

http://balder.prohosting.com/sywu/pneumonia.htm[/font]

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Carlo Urbani, the scientist who discovered the first clue that a dangerous new microbe was beginning to spread around the globe, succumbed yesterday in a Bangkok hospital bed to the frightening disease he alerted the world to.

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