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SARS outbreak in China a rumor: CDC
2012/02/23 23:13:56
Taipei, Feb. 23 (CNA) The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Thursday that there is no SARS outbreak in China, despite unverified information circulating on the Internet.

The Chinese health authorities have clarified that there is no SARS outbreak within its territory, said CDC Deputy Director-General Chou Chih-hau.

The Chinese authorities will provide information to the CDC regarding the rumor on Friday, as its office in charge is already closed, he added.

Many Chinese Internet users have voiced concerns over a possible pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in a military hospital located in Hebei Province, according to a local daily newspaper.

SARS is a respiratory disease caused by a virus that infects the lungs and causes difficulty in breathing. Common antibiotics have proven ineffective against SARS and patients must rely on clinical treatment to recover.

Although the Chinese government has yet to officially deny the rumor, bloggers alleged that hundreds of patients have been hospitalized in isolation wards and at least one has died from the fatal disease, the newspaper report said.

In the past, China's government has records of covering up news about infection cases.

There are so far no reports from Hong Kong, which was one of the areas hardest hit by the SARS pandemic between 2002 and 2003, or the rest of the world.

While customs officials are equipped with sensors to detect a fever, a typical symptom of SARS, Chou said Taiwan has also established more than 1,000 isolation wards and facilities, a lesson learned from past experience.

SARS caused about 70 deaths in Taiwan a decade ago, including a number of medical staff in charge of patients, according to Chou.

"We are taking a precautious attitude toward this,”he said.

(By Nancy Liu)
ENDITEM/npw
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Chinese Netizens Claim SARS Has Returned Blog posts say several have already died
By Shen Yuqing
Epoch Times Staff Created: February 23, 2012 Last Updated: February 24, 2012 .Related articles: China » Society

Netizens in China are raising the alarm about the return of a deadly illness—they say SARS is back in China, and Chinese officials cannot be trusted to keep people safe.

Posts on well-known blog sites such as Baidu, Tianya, and Weibo in mainland China and the Golden Forum in Hong Kong say that: hospitals in China are once again seeing SARS patients; several patients have died; and nearly 100 are quarantined.

SARS—the acronym stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome—appeared in 2003, infecting over 8000 people in 26 countries, and causing 774 deaths, according to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, which describes SARS as the 21st century’s first pandemic.



According to the netizens’ posts, SARS has appeared in two spots in northeastern China: Baoding in Hebei Province and in Dalian City in Liaoning Province. Local residents in Baoding also told Epoch Times reporters that there were SARS cases in the area.

According to an article in CNA, the Taiwan news service, on Feb. 23 Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control asked officials in Beijing to confirm whether SARS has reappeared. Later, the deputy director of Taiwans’ Centers for Disease Control, Zhou Zhihao, announced that China’s Department of Public Health denied there was another outbreak of SARS.

According to a netizen, Hong Kong officials were given the same answer.

Anderson Chen Xingchang posted a message on Sina blog: “Regarding the hearsay that the No. 252 Hospital in Baoding had found SARS patients recently, Hong Kong Department of Health has communicated with China’s Department of Health, and learned that the initial result indicated it was not SARS. Related departments in China will release the information later.”

In response to the official denials, netizens reminded each other of Beijing’s cover-up of SARS in 2003. One of them said, “Be on your guard! If you trust mainland China’s information channel, even if you trust 5 percent of it, you will die. Do you still remember what happened when SARS broke out years ago?”

Cover-up in 2003
On Nov. 16, 2002, the People’s Hospital of Heyuan, in southeastern China’s Guangdong Province. received a patient who was later identified to be the first SARS patient in the world. Several medical staff were infected in turn. However, Chinese officials denied that a deadly plague had been found.

Two and a half months later, SARS spread to the Guangzhou area. To ensure there was no civil unrest during the National Congress and People’s Political Consultative Conference--two important, annual meetings staged by the CCP, none of the major Chinese media reported on the situation.

In addition, Public Security attempted to arrest what it called “rumor mongers.” As a result, during the Chinese New Year travel rush, SARS spread rapidly to all parts of China.

By March 19, 2003, SARS had spread to Hong Kong and Beijing, and Shanxi, Hunan, Guangxi and Sichuan Provinces. Nonetheless, China’s officials claimed SARS was well under control in Beijing.

On April 2, the World Health Organization issued a travel warning, the first global alert against travel in its 55-year history, advising people not to travel to Guangdong or Hong Kong. Around this time the Minister of Public Health, Zhang Wenkang, announced: “It is safe to travel to China and come to China to work.”

After two failed attempts to get China’s media to report the truth, a Chinese doctor in People’s Liberation Army’s 301 Hospital, Dr. Jiang Yanyong, described the real situation to Time Magazine, which published his open letter on April 8, 2003.

Due to international pressure, Chinese authorities had to admit that they had lied about the epidemic of SARS. On one day, the official figure of identified patients in Beijing jumped from 37 to 339 cases, and kept rising until the epidemic ended.


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Soon after that, Zhang Wenkang and Beijing’s deputy party head Meng Xuenong were dismissed from their respective posts, as scapegoats for the cover-up. China’s then chairman Jiang Zemin fled to Shanghai in an effort to avoid being infected.

The Epoch Times was onto this story early on, first reporting on SARS in February 2003. In March, when China’s state-run media tried to cover up the truth, and other Chinese media outlets outside China didn’t pay much attention to SARS, The Epoch Times produced more than 300 news articles about SARS, sending out a strong warning to people around the world.

Read the original Chinese article.

chinareports@epochtimes.com

Tags: cover-upnetizenssars

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http://pandemicinformationnews.blogspot ... al-no.html
http://news.sina.com.hk/news/3/1/1/2586776/1.html


Transferred the patient was infected with SARS in Baoding, Hebei People's Liberation Army 252 Hospital, last night, armed police guard, but not tense atmosphere, the hospital as usual. (Photo by Ming Pao reporter)
Adjust the font ︰ in small
[Ming Pao] Mainland online has spread refers to the Chinese People's Liberation Army 252 Hospital, Baoding, Hebei treated over 100 patients with suspected SARS. Centre for Health Protection in Hong Kong yesterday to contact the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Health, the initial recognition is not the SARS epidemic, and later in the relevant Mainland authorities will be sent and informed of relevant news. The reporter last night to reach Baoding 252 hospitals, but no armed police guard, but not tense, the hospital as usual.

Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection, said the Ministry of Health will continue to closely follow up the matter and to monitor the latest developments.


The Health Ministry said the non-SARS in Hong Kong, close follow-up

Mainland recently circulated on the Internet an information, refer to "Baoding, Hebei People's Liberation Army 252 Hospital admitted more than 100 people have been fatal SARS variation, the first patient in Baoding Qingyuan Wing school to check out, now hospitalized most of them are young soldiers, because that is the People's Liberation Army hospital, before the onset to the south training.

Mainland netizens Baoding, 252 hospitals were closed, due to the emergence of mutant virus in the micro-Bo said. Mainland Sohu microblogging query to the local staff, the hospital said the seal hospital and everything is normal, hospital nurses said there was no variation of the virus, but the recent increase in fever patients.


Armed police guarded the Baoding public to wear masks

The reporter last night to reach Baoding 252 hospitals, but no armed police guard, but not tense, the hospital as usual. A security Wang said recently the weather is cold, flu patients increased, but not of SARS, "(SARS), are not our security guarding, the whole hospital will be martial law. The reporter also asked several Baoding public had heard of SARS rumors, but can not guarantee that the news is true that the flow of people gathered at the train station, streets and other places, and no some people wearing masks and other preparedness.

HA Head Infection Control Officer Dr Tsang said that Hong Kong already has a strain of SARS mechanisms and facilities, the HA has 1400 negative pressure isolation beds of infectious diseases, laboratory SARS virus is a quick test agent, a few hours there will be results.

Isolation beds to be requisitioned by the hospital for other services, if the SARS outbreak, the hospital only three days can reply to the isolation ward of the function. He said there is evidence of the SARS outbreak, the signs of HA in conjunction with the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) activated the emergency response mechanism, but worry about the most difficult to find the first incidence of the source.

CHP spokesman said that a comprehensive system of channels of communication between Hong Kong and the Mainland, including the notification mechanism of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome SARS, to ensure the timely exchange of important news and information on infectious disease events, and the outbreak.

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CDC denies China SARS outbreak report

BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY:Late yesterday the Chinese health authorities told the CDC the outbreak in Hebei Province had been confirmed to be an adenovirus type 55 infection

Staff Writer, with CNA



The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Thursday that there was no SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in China, despite unverified reports circulating on the Internet.

The Chinese health authorities have said that there is no SARS outbreak within its territory, CDC Deputy Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said on Thursday.

The Chinese authorities were scheduled to provide information to the CDC regarding the rumors yesterday, he said.

SARS is a respiratory disease caused by a virus that infects the lungs and causes difficulty in breathing. Common antibiotics have proven ineffective against the virus and patients are dependent on clinical treatment to recover.

Many Chinese Internet users have voiced concern over a possible SARS pandemic in a military hospital in Hebei Province, -according to a newspaper.

Although the Chinese government has yet to officially deny the rumor, bloggers alleged that hundreds of patients have been hospitalized in isolation wards and at least one has died from the disease, the newspaper report said.

In the past, the Chinese government covered up news about infectious cases.

There are so far no reports from Hong Kong, which was one of the areas hardest hit by the SARS -pandemic from 2002 to 2003, or the rest of the world.

While customs officials are equipped with sensors to detect passengers running a fever, a typical symptom of SARS, Chou said Taiwan had also established more than 1,000 isolation wards and facilities.

SARS resulted in about 70 deaths in Taiwan a decade ago, including a number of medical staff in charge of patients, Chou said.

The CDC late yesterday said that the Chinese health authorities had confirmed that a reported outbreak of SARS was in fact a case of adenovirus infection. China informed the CDC the suspected outbreak in Hebei Province had been confirmed as adenovirus type 55 infection, Chou said.

However, China did not reveal the scale of the epidemic.

Chou said that adenovirus infection was easy to treat and that the CDC did not need to investigate any further.

Adenovirus type 55 infection was first discovered in China’s Shaanxi Province in 2006. Of 254 high school students treated for the infection, only one died.

There is no record of adenovirus type 55 infection in Taiwan, CDC statistics show.
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