Sars suspects are being victimised in Beijing, where thousands have now been put in compulsory quarantine, a World Health Organisation specialist, Dr Wolfgang Preiser, said yesterday.
”If you make it hell for them, they go into hiding,” Dr Preiser, a German virologist, told reporters in Shanghai.
”It is a bit of an over-reaction. Health officials must know how to draw a balance and stop victimising people unnecessarily.”
China said yesterday that another five people had died from Sars and 180 were infected, taking the death toll to 115 and the number of cases to 2 601.
A health official in Beijing, Guo Jiyong, said his department had ordered 4 000 people who has had ”intimate contact” with suspected Sars cases to stay at home under quarantine. Under new regulations applying to hospitals, factories, hotels, schools, residential blocks and anywhere else where the virus is found, anyone violating the compulsory quarantine would be ”severely punished.”
Officials had to deny rumours, which have added to the panic in the capital, that martial law would be declared, or main roads and airports sealed off.
The People’s hospital, which has more than 3 000 staff and patients, remained cordoned off by police tapes yesterday. Clothes and food left for patients by visitors were handed through the gate to masked hospital employees.
Restrictions were imposed on a second hospital, the Ditan, which specialises in infectious diseases.
Dr Preiser spoke to journalists in Shanghai as his team prepared to brief city officials on its findings there.
The current number of suspected cases there is 15, but the team said later that the number would ”increase substantially”. Although the city’s health system was working well, it had not yet been tested by a large number of cases.
The team has been in China for five weeks on a mission originally due to last only a week.
Further missions are being planned, to hard-hit rural provinces where there is a ”major concern” that Sars cases are being identified or reported slowly, or not at all.
Cooperation between WHO and the Chinese government is now described as ”extremely open” and the team has enjoyed free and unrestricted access to hospitals in Shanghai. This is in sharp contrast to the situation at the beginning of the mission, when meetings at the ministry of health in Beijing took place ”in a very tense atmosphere”.
”We are not weapons inspectors, we’re not there to search hospitals from cellar to roof to see if there are patients hidden away,” Dr Preiser said.
Earlier this week WHO said it believed that the Chinese leadership was ”now taking seriously the need for transparency in Sars”.
The latest figure for cases in is 877, an increase of more than 500 in five days, although it is not clear if all of them are new or some were previously unreported.
Even more worrying is another big increase in the number of suspected cases in Beijing, to 954.
China has finally been persuaded to let its scientists join in discussions on WHO-led international networks, and to contribute much-needed data.
Its data from Guangdong, the province where the virus first appeared in November, still awaits full analysis, to throw light on the origins of the epidemic.
Wu Yi, the vice-premier who is now acting health minister, announced yesterday that China would spend 3,5-billion yuan ($420-million) on a national health network for Sars and other emergencies.
Around the world
More than 4 400 probable cases of Sars reported worldwide – including 2 601 in mainland China, 1 510 in Hong Kong, 192 in Singapore, and 140 in Canada
WHO refuses to lift warning against travel to Toronto. Canada insists outbreak is coming under control
Health officials from nine Asian countries, including China, Japan and South Korea, draft joint plan to strengthen defences against Sars at meeting in Malaysia
In Britain, health minister Hazel Blears says screening travellers arriving at airports would be ‘pretty pointless’. She says: ‘I genuinely believe our response has been proportionate, responsible and effective.’
In Dublin, Chinese woman is given surgical mask and discharged from hospital to hostel where she is lodging; and in Waterford, a GP waits several days before telling health authority about a woman recently back from Toronto with Sars-like symptoms. Chief medical officer says initial negative tests are inconclusive. Both women now in isolation wards
Philippines confirms first two deaths from Sars
North Korea suspends joint tourism project with South Korea. South Korean company running project says North has ruled ‘no outsiders are allowed to visit Pyongyang and other parts’
Pakistan may suspend flights to Sars-hit countries, state-run news agency reports. So far, there have been no cases there
Three babies so far born in Hong Kong to infected mothers; doctors say the babies may be infected. Two mothers died within days of giving birth. Surviving mother is in stable condition
Taiwan authorities sealed off Taipei Municipal Ho Ping Hospital on Thursday. Those inside will have to stay for up to two weeks. Medical staff protest at the quarantine, which follows more than 25 suspected Sars cases, and affects some 1,000 patients, doctors, nurses and visitors
– Guardian Unlimited Â