The Wilful Sunflower

Malaysian news

SARS: Six more warded

Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA: Six more suspected cases of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) have been reported in the country, bringing the cumulative number of cases to 65 as of yesterday [Thursday].

This brings total number of people under quarantine to 16.

Post-mortem findings on a 64-year-old man suspected of dying from SARS will also be available today.

"The initial findings revealed that the patient died of heart failure and pneumonia complications but a re-examination will give us clear results before we can classify his death as a probable death from SARS," he [Health Ministry director-general Tan Sri Dr Mohamed Taha Arif] said.

In related news, the man's family was placed under home quarantine yesterday by the Health Ministry, who is also trying to track down all those who had contact with the deceased.

Health Minister Datuk Chua Jui Meng, questioned on the man's death, today told the Dewan Rakyat (Lower House of Parliament) that the Health Ministry director-general "had already ordered a committee to be set up to determine whether the victim could be classified as a probable SARS case." Oh, right. We need a committee to decide whether the poor guy died of SARS?!

Reacting to criticism over his ministry's handling of the SARS issue, the minister was quoted as saying:

"I have to say that the preparations that we have made to combat this problem ever since the WHO's worldwide health alert on March 12, is above what is required by the world body."

Meanwhile, the Education Ministry has distributed SARS fact-sheets to all schools. Headmasters, principals and teachers nationwide have been told to be on the lookout for SAR-like symptoms among students. Any student found exhibiting symptoms is to be sent for a medical examination immediately.

Malaysia Airlines, the country's national carrier, yesterday announced the cancellation of several flights to Hong Kong and Singapore due to the SARS situation.

The government has already advised Malaysians working in Singapore to take their annual leave and stay away from our southern neighbour.

World news

Yesterday, Singapore reported a fifth death from SARS, raising the global death toll to 80.

The number of infections in the city state also rose, climbing by two to 100 and including a 20-year-old student, the Ministry of Health said. Sixty-three of these have recovered, but 12 are still in serious condition, and 609 are in quarantine.

In the UK, the government yesterday strongly advised Britons to avoid travelling to Hong Kong or China's Guangdong province.

Vietnam, which had seen no new cases in over a week, reported another new case yesterday:

Vietnam, where the World Health Organization had thought the spread of the disease had been checked, reported its first new SARS case in more than a week, suggesting that it represented a new chain of transmission.

The case occurred in a man who was treated in a provincial hospital about two hours from Hanoi, which has been the center of the illness in Vietnam. The unexpected appearance of a new case raised the specter that the disease had spread into the countryside and might have infected health care workers in an area where infection control measures are substandard.

Meanwhile, WHO experts search for origins of SARS in Southern China.

A team of international scientists in southern China sought clues Friday to the "virological mystery'' of how a fatal flu-like illness started and spread, while new deaths were reported as far away as Canada.

The World Health Organization specialists planned to spend the coming days in Guangdong province talking to doctors, visiting hospitals and going to the town where the fist case of severe acute respiratory syndrome surfaced in November.

After the team arrived Thursday, provincial officials gave them information indicating that new cases of SARS were diminishing in the hard-hit region, team spokesman Chris Powell said.

The really bad news

Julie Gerberding, Director of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has said that it will be difficult to contain the spread of SARS.

It's too soon to tell whether a deadly new respiratory illness will become a global pandemic, but it would take extreme luck for it to be contained now, says the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, seems to be well contained in the United States, with 85 suspected cases in 27 states, little secondary spread and no deaths.

But it continues to grow globally, in numbers and geographically. There are more than 2,200 cases in 16 countries, and it has now reached a fourth continent - South America - with Brazil reporting its first case.

It's also worsening in Canada, where a seventh SARS patient died Thursday and a conference of 16,000 cancer experts was canceled out of fear that doctors would catch the disease and spread it to vulnerable cancer patients.