Scientists in Germany say an experimental drug for the common cold might also serve against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars), while thousands of Chinese turn to the occult to ward off the disease as it enters China’s vulnerable countryside. Deaths worldwide rose on Wednesday to at least 581.
Beijing authorities say infection rates in the hard-hit capital have fallen, and have lifted quarantine orders for thousands of residents. That good news was tempered by the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirming that migrant workers have spread the disease from Beijing into some rural areas of the neighbouring province of Hebei.
Meanwhile, reports came in from further afield of villagers lighting firecrackers and even turning to sorcerers to keep away Sars. The resort to tradition has prompted efforts by China’s state press and the officially atheist communist government to discourage it.
More than 7 400 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome have been reported worldwide and the death toll rose on Wednesday to at least 581, after Taiwan announced one new fatality.
The island has had 31 deaths out of 238 cases, suffering the worst outbreak outside of China’s mainland and its territory Hong Kong. China’s mainland accounts for more than 5 000 of the known infections and at least 262 of the deaths.
Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday closed its border with China and suspended most road and air traffic with its neighbour to prevent the spread of Sars.
Malaysia also deployed military medics at border crossings and in Singapore, authorities are making sure no visitors dodge Sars checks.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder filled out a health declaration form and was monitored by a thermal imaging camera after he touched down on Tuesday at Changi airport in Singapore as part of his Southeast Asian tour.
Schroeder said the procedure was ”totally pain-free” — a quip that won praise from Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, who described the visit, made against the wishes of some German advisers, as ”especially important given the Sars situation”.
In a study appearing this week in the journal Science, German researchers said they have tentatively determined the structure of a protein used by the Sars virus to infect cells. They believe the virus could be treated by a modified version of an experimental common cold drug called AG7088.
Rolf Hilgenfeld of the University of Luebeck in Germany, senior author of the study, said AG7088 provides ”a good starting point” for developing a drug that will block the ability of the Sars virus to reproduce.
In China, thousands were turning to unscientific means to ward off Sars.
Farmers and urban residents in the provinces of Anhui in the east, Guangdong in the south and Fujian in the southeast are lighting firecrackers, long used to chase away evil spirits, according to police.
In the central province of Hunan, villagers hoping to avoid Sars seek help from sorcerers in incense-infused rites, according to local officials and newspapers.
He Dazhi, a reporter for the newspaper Sanxiang Metropolitan News, wrote that sorcerers ask believers to bow to spiritual scrolls or a statue of Buddha. Gongs or drums occasionally accompany such a ceremony.
”Sars is completely unknown to many farmers,” He wrote.
”Their fear of infection has been used by sorcerers to have them rely on superstition instead of science.”
On Tuesday, WHO investigators who visited northern Hebei province said migrant workers had carried the virus to rural areas from neighbouring Beijing.
The announcement confirmed worries that Sars, still largely an urban disease in China, might spread to the countryside. Experts say a lack of doctors and hospitals there could make any severe outbreak a catastrophe.
Hebei has reported 191 cases and eight deaths, though the WHO experts did not say how many were in rural areas. ‒ Sapa-AP