Earthfiles

"[The SARS gene sequence shows] a unique coronavirus only distantly related to previously sequenced coronaviruses (in animals and humans). ...This virus may never before have circulated in the U. S. population."

- The New England Journal of Medicine, April 10, 2003

 

May 2, 2003  Hong Kong, China - Today, health officials in China reported another 176 new cases of the severe acute respiratory syndrome known as SARS, plus 11 more deaths. That boosts the world total to more than 6,000 cases and 402 deaths. That means the global average death rate for SARS is now about 7%. But in Toronto, Canada, which reports 147 cases and 20 deaths, the mortality rate is nearly 14%.

As new SARS cases continue to surge in the countryside around Beijing where thousands fled trying to escape the deadly virus in the nation's capitol, health authorities are afraid the death rate will climb higher in China as well.

 

April 29, 2003  Beijing, China - On this date, China announced nine new deaths from severe acute respiratory syndrome known as SARS and 202 new cases, bringing the country's death toll to 148 and case number to 3,303. Some medical authorities have expressed concern that given China's deliberate efforts to hide SARS patients and even deny their was a disease problem until only recently, the actual number of cases might be double or triple the current publicly reported number. The World Health Organization's advisory against nonessential travel to Beijing and China's Shanxi Province, Guangdong Province and Hong Kong remains in effect where SARS is still a serious epidemic. There, as the government tries to clean buses, public buildings, schools and hospitals, the economies have collapsed in the face of a disease that is keeping thousands of people home, either in quarantine or in fear of catching the dangerous illness.

April 26, 2003  Beijing, China - Amid rumors that the Beijing government is about to invoke martial law (denied by officials so far), 4000 residents suspected of SARS contamination were ordered to stay home in quarantine yesterday. Beijing authorities also sealed off the city's third major hospital as the number of new SARS cases jumped from 37 to 877 in only five days. Ditan Hospital in northern Beijing was closed only a few days after the Beijing government had featured the hospital as an example of their health care organization and ability to control SARS. Earlier this week, Peking University's People's Hospital was also closed, along with Northern Jiaotong University where 400 students are quarantined.