SARS Death Toll and New Cases Rising Slowly in HK

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, April 30, 2003

SARS Death Toll and New Cases Rising Slowly in HK

World Health Organization experts investigating Hong Kong's SARS crisis toured several hard-hit areas by bus Tuesday, while 12 new deaths pushed the territory's toll to 150.

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World Health Organization experts investigating Hong Kong's SARS crisis toured several hard-hit areas by bus Tuesday, while 12 new deaths pushed the territory's toll to 150.

Although Hong Kong's fatalities keep rising, the number of new SARS cases seems to be on a downward trend, with just 15 reported on yesterday, following 14 on Monday - the lowest since officials started releasing daily statistics last month.

Hong Kong has now reported 1,572 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome, but 759 people have recovered and been discharged from hospitals, including 49 sent home yesterday.

The WHO team is hoping to determine whether the disease was spread through environmental factors, such as leaking sewage pipes, as Hong Kong experts have concluded. But the WHO officials did not immediately collect any detailed information or physical evidence, said spokes-woman Kay McNiece.

The WHO investigators wanted a quick look at the Amoy Gardens apartment complex, where more than 300 people were infected by SARS, and the Metropole Hotel, where an ill medical professor from Guangdong Province infected people who spread the disease in Hong Kong.

They also visited Health Department laboratories and rode by bus to two other areas that have seen multiple cases of SARS, though nothing on the magnitude of the Amoy Gardens outbreak, according to McNiece.

Hong Kong investigators have concluded that SARS apparently spread through sewage leaks in Amoy Gardens, as well as in common areas such as elevators and lobbies, but the WHO is making an independent assessment.

A top hospital official said yesterday that supplies of protective gear for hospital workers fighting SARS have been held up by managers who needlessly rationed masks and robes in the mistaken belief they didn't have enough on hand.

"Fearing that the supplies might soon run out, some middle-level management staff have asked their colleagues to be thrifty," said Fung Hong, a Hospital Authority official who monitors such supplies, on a radio program. "In fact, the standard supply is sufficient."

Fung, who also serves as chief executive of the hard-hit Prince of Wales Hospital, has just recovered from SARS.

Fung spoke on the radio in response to phone-in criticism from people identifying themselves as hospital workers and complaining about supply backlogs.

While supplies generally remained adequate, Fung warned officials might need to ration some masks that were running into "bottleneck" problems in production.

Meantime, the number of Hong Kong people feeling quite anxious or very anxious about SARS rose to 27 percent from 18 percent, but those who felt extremely anxious fell to 2 percent from 5 percent, according to a University of Hong Kong survey.

"The increase in anxiety levels could be due to the epidemic still being there, or it could be because of the reports of people who died from the disease - some of them are young," said Dr Lam Tai-hing, head of the university's Department of Community Medicine.

The survey of 800 people, taken between April 16 and 23, had a margin of error of plus or minus 6.1 percentage points, Lam told a news conference.

The Hong Kong government chartered a jetliner to fly 33 members of a tour group out of Taiwan, where they were confined to a hotel amid fears a young girl might have SARS, officials said yesterday.

Hong Kong's Health Department was sending doctors aboard the Dragonair jet hired to take the Hong Kong people - including the 6-year-old girl - back home, where they would be placed in quarantine for another week as a precaution.

The girl has had no fever for two days and her chest X-rays have appeared normal, Health Director Dr Margaret Chan told a news conference.

Authorities will re-examine the girl upon her return.

Taiwanese officials diagnosed the girl as a suspected SARS case. Chan said while she respected the diagnosis, Hong Kong doctors will need to do their own examination.

Source: agencies

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