World Beat: China
Virus threatens East Asia

By Aaron Weiner
The Flat Hat

The World Health Organization issued travel warnings for Hong Kong and the Southern Chinese province of Guangdong. According to CNN.com Wednesday April 2, travelers heading to the area are advised to postpone all non-essential travel due to the recent outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus. Announcing the advisory, David Heymann, the WHO's head of communicable diseases, said it was first time in recent years the U.N. health body had made such a recommendation.

SARS has killed at least 62 people and infected more than 1,800 in 15 countries around the world, the vast majority of them in China and Hong Kong. According to the April 2 edition of The Washington Post, the virus has symptoms much like the flu. Victims suffer from high fevers, achy muscles and joints, shortness of breath or trouble breathing and a dry cough.

The virus seems to be spread by close contact with a victim, as all those who have contracted the virus so far are either health care workers who have treated victims or members of the victim's families. SARS spreads easily and has already reached Europe and North America, although many of the cases reported there are isolated. The virus has been concentrated in Asia, where the majority of victims and deaths have occurred.

WHO spokesman Iain Simpson, speaking to CNN, suggested that there could be a different kind of transmission in Hong Kong other than through direct contact, a theory the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has speculated.

The WHO is particularly concerned with a rise in cases beyond the hospital clusters in Hong Kong which suggests the spread of the virus might be affected by the environment, such as water or sewage systems, rather than just by droplets.

According to the April 3 edition of The Washington Post, officials in Hong Kong evacuated 240 residents of a downtown apartment complex to a countryside camp to be quarantined until experts could determine how the mysterious new microbe is spreading in their building.

In Hanoi, the epidemic seems to have subsided, with no new cases reported in eight days. Officials also put quarantines on schools, hospitals and other institutions in Singapore and Toronto, raising hope that the outbreaks would soon subside in those hot spots for the infection.

"The good news is that Vietnam has contained the outbreak, Singapore is rapidly containing the outbreak, Toronto is rapidly containing the outbreak," Heymann said. "We don't anticipate there will be spread from these places."

CNN.com reports that scientists strongly believe the virus is being spread around the world by air travelers.

The WHO announcement came shortly after China released new data on the number of deaths in Guangdong province, thought by many experts to be the origin of the virus outbreak. Only recently China opened up about how much the disease has spread domestically, and the cooperation only came after mounting international pressure.

Much of the current progress being made in identifying, treating and preventing the virus from spreading has come from a worldwide effort of doctors and health officials cooperating in a manner rarely seen before.

According to the latest figures from WHO, nine people died from SARS last month. The disease also infected some 361 people in the province in the same period, bringing the nationwide total to 1,167, the Chinese report said.

Hong Kong, which borders China's Guangdong province, has become the epicenter for the virus with nearly 700 cases and 16 deaths. Panic buying swept Hong Kong supermarkets Tuesday, fueled by a rumor that the territory was shortly to be declared an infected area and placed under total quarantine.