Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[basserdan]

*** SARS related post ***

Turnip prices have jumped in Beijing after the vegetable was touted as a key ingredient in a potion to fight the deadly virus that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, peddlers said...

Hi JD,
It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the turnips are being appropriated by the Chinese military.....

Sars: Secrecy, new fears
15/04/2003 12:04 - (SA)

Hong Kong - Stubborn secrecy surrounded the Sars outbreak in Asia on Tuesday as China denied international experts access to military hospitals and the virus was reported to be killing younger and fitter people in Hong Kong.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it had been barred from Beijing military hospitals where unconfirmed reports have said a large number of patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) were being treated.

A WHO team of experts met Chinese officials on Tuesday as part of a week-long effort to understand how health officials were coping with the epidemic, WHO information officer Jim Radamaekers said.

China's health ministry told the WHO on Tuesday that 14 new Sars cases had been recorded, bringing the total to 1 438, with 64 deaths.

China been strongly criticised for failing to reveal earlier the full picture behind the Sars outbreak which emerged in the southern province of Guangdong in November and then spread across the border to Hong Kong.

The virus, for which there is no cure yet, has since been spread around the world by airline passengers, infecting more than 3 000 people in over 30 countries. The global death toll now stands at 143.

In Hong Kong, which has listed nearly 1 200 cases and 48 fatalities, a sudden cluster of deaths of younger and healthier victims heightened fears that Sars is no longer just a killer of the elderly or chronically ill.

No evidence virus has become more dangerous

A 42-year-old man with no history of poor health was among seven who died on Monday in Hong Kong's highest single-day death toll. Another five people who had also been in good health died at the weekend.

"We're worried about these people who are young," Dr Henry Yeung of the Hong Kong Doctors Union (HKDU) said.

The WHO said it would examine the deaths of younger Sars patients, but added there was no evidence that the virus had become more dangerous.

Hong Kong Hospital Authority officials say doctors have had some success with new drug therapies.

The Hospital Authority has begun trying to combat Sars with heavy doses of anti-viral drugs given to patients before they become ill enough to be moved into already strained intensive care wards.

Ko said the use of the drugs, which include steroids and Ribavarin, have been successful in 80 to 90% of patients.

In Germany, meanwhile, a biotechnology company on Monday started distributing test kits around the world which it said can detect Sars.

The Hamburg-based Artus developed the kits in collaboration with the Bernhardt Nocht tropical medicine institute, which believes it identified two weeks ago the virus that probably causes Sars.

Virus taking a toll on Asian economies

Artus, which has offered the kits to laboratories free of charge, said its technique allows detection of the illness in under two hours, whereas traditional methods need between 10 and 20 days to prove an infection.

The Sars outbreak is taking a toll on Asian economies.

International rating agency Standard and Poor's predicted on Tuesday the epidemic would lower growth rates in much of the region this year.

The agency said the virus has affected not just tourist arrivals and consumer spending, but also business operations and investments.

A grouping of Asia-Pacific airlines on Tuesday urged governments to cut airport fees and other charges and consider providing war risk insurance to prevent the industry's collapse.

Richard Stirland, director-general of the 17-member Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines (AAPA), called on other stakeholders in the aviation industry to share the burden currently borne by the airlines due to a sharp drop in travel.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Sars/0,,2-10-1488_1348027,00.html

Regards,
Dan